DIDI Chuxing: Is it safe?

DIDI Chuxing (滴滴出行) is the most popular ride-sharing service in China that offers similar services to Uber. The company provides services such as ride-hailing service, private car, bike sharing, etc. The most controversial service that the company offer is the hitchhiking service that allows the customers to be picked up by a stranger at a lower price point than the traditional taxi service.

The problem with the hitchhiking service is that unlike other services that DIDI provides, this service is not commercial, and passengers only pay for a share of the fuel and any other costs they want to cover. This made the service cheap compared to the others and made it possible for anyone with a car to be a driver for this service. This caused many incidents that would end up damaging the company’s reputation and made many people question the safeness of the service.

Over the past year, two murders have taken place due to the hitchhiking service. One in May and another in August, and both of the victims were young women between the age of 18-30. Many other young women who have taken the service have also said that they have heard the drivers make inappropriate and sexual remarks about their appearances. This is a major problem for DIDI as a whole and could lead to its downfall.

After the incident happened, DIDI has done many things to try to fix the issue. They have tried making it only allowing drivers to serve passengers of the same sex, making the service unavailable between 10 pm and 6 am. In the end, DIDI still had to shut down the service as a whole due to major backlash from the customers.

Victoria Y., a junior at AISG stated that “I would probably still use DIDI because I haven’t faced any of these problems before and DIDI still provides a better service compared to its rivals.” Even though there is a lot of controversy surrounding DIDI, she would still use it because of its convenience.

Sheila W., a sophomore at AISG called the service “DIDI杀人” (murder). She also stated that “[she] would never use the service again after the incidents, and everyone else should also avoid using it to stay safe. People should stay away from the service because it happened twice already, you never know who is going to be the victim of the third murder.”

Currently, DIDI has fixed its problems and recovered from its 2018 dip in revenue due to the incidents. Many users have now gone back to using its services due to the company strengthening passenger’s personal safety and prioritizing on making sure these incidents never happen again.