Meituan-Dianping puts car-hailing on menu

[Photo: from VCG]

Chinese group-buying and dining information platform Meituan-Dianping has finally launched ride-hailing services in Shanghai, heating up competition with Didi Chuxing in the nation's burgeoning but cutthroat car-hailing market.

Drivers on the new platform will be charged 8 percent commission fees, which is lower than the 20 percent charged by Didi. What this means is that drivers can on average make at least 600 yuan ($95) a day if they are online for 10 hours and complete 10 orders a day. In addition, drivers will also get another 200 yuan after they surpass the 600-yuan mark.

The real benefit, however, is for drivers who join the platform early can avoid commission charges and keep their entire earnings for the first three months. Meituan-Dianping will only charge them 0.5 yuan for each order.

Such tantalizing subsidies put Meituan-Dianping in direct rivalry with Didi, the country's largest car-hailing platform, and are set to intensify the price war in the Chinese ride-hailing market, with incentives being the trump card for firms to grow both driver and user numbers.

[The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI] 

(News source: China Daily)