The online car-hailing giant is in full swing, and AutoNavi strengthens the taxi business: AI dynamic price adjustment solves the price problem

China Times

2024-04-27 18:48Published on the official account of Beijing China Times

(Wang Guixin, President of AutoNavi Taxi)

Ten years ago, the fiery subsidy war between Didi and Kuaidi began with offline taxis. Ten years later, offline taxis have become a new competition point for ride-hailing platforms.

On April 25, AutoNavi released a good taxi 3.0 patrol network integration solution (hereinafter referred to as "good taxi 3.0"), and Wang Guixin, president of AutoNavi Taxi, said at the seminar on the integration and development of new and old taxi formats held on the same day that as a participant in the integration of patrol network, AutoNavi hopes to help the introduction and enhancement of more market-oriented elements to help the cruise taxi industry rejuvenate itself.

Behind this, online car-hailing has had an impact on the offline cruise taxi industry, but the Internet and digitalization are also bringing new business to offline taxis. Zhang Junfeng, president of the China Taxi and Car Rental Association, also said in his speech on the same day that in essence, cruise cars and online car-hailing both belong to the taxi industry, and integration is not who eats whom, who collapses whom, but to learn from each other's strengths, complement each other's advantages, improve together, and jointly provide appropriate services for passengers to take a taxi. Online car-hailing and cruising cars should coexist harmoniously and develop together in the era of developing new quality productivity.

Accelerate market-oriented reform

More market-oriented is one of the important upgrade directions of AutoNavi Rental 3.0.

Based on the principle of matching supply and demand, taxi companies can flexibly adjust the price of online reservation orders around the spatial dimensions such as stations and business districts and time dimensions such as high & flat peak periods and holidays, so as to improve the overall order volume and income of drivers.

According to the "China Times" reporter, under the fierce competition of online car-hailing in the past few years, the reform of the price mechanism has become an unavoidable problem for the integration and development of new and old taxi formats. In recent years, Zhejiang, Inner Mongolia, Henan and other provinces and regions across the country have introduced relevant policies, and the trial cruise taxi can be priced according to the online reservation rules when soliciting passengers by online reservation, that is, "one car two prices", in order to strengthen market-oriented regulation.

Among them, as an Internet platform company that has been focusing on the field of transportation for more than 20 years and is one of the first to participate in the construction of a transportation power, AutoNavi provides digital technology boosters for the integration of taxi patrol networks. Wang Guixin told the "China Times" and other media reporters on the same day that for the integration of patrol networks, AutoNavi's choice has always been to stand with the "masters" of the industry, divide labor and cooperate, continue to open up technology, data and traffic, and become a service provider for the taxi industry to release vitality and value.

According to AutoNavi, the "Good Taxi" patrol network integration solution has undergone two iterations since it was launched in November 2020. In the 1.0 era, Good Taxi has helped Cruise Taxi complete its digital basic capacity building, while in the 2.0 era, Good Taxi has focused on service capabilities, including operational efficiency, service quality, employee services, and inclusive capabilities.

In the 3.0 era, the data provided by AutoNavi shows that after taxi companies use AI dynamic price adjustment models to flexibly adjust the price of online reservation orders, the overall order volume of drivers has increased by 20%, the success rate of taxi hailing during peak hours has increased by 18%, the average driver earns 11% more per order, and the high-value orders received by drivers during peak hours have increased by 13%.

Up to now, AutoNavi has reached cooperation with industry authorities, associations and enterprises in more than 360 cities to jointly build a patrol network integration platform, serving more than 1.7 million drivers, helping them increase their online revenue by 46% and passenger satisfaction by 76%.

Ride-hailing platform race point

If you look at the entire ride-hailing market, taxis are not a big part of it. Industry data in 2020 showed that online orders for taxis accounted for less than 10% at that time, and many industry insiders recently communicated with reporters that this proportion is now only about two or three percent of the entire market.

For online ride-hailing platforms, compared with the online car-hailing business, which can take a percentage of the order amount, taxi orders that can only charge a meager information fee for each order do not seem to be the future of commercial profitability.

However, whether it is the hot online car-hailing subsidy war between Didi and Kuaidi in 2014, or the ongoing integration and upgrading of the patrol network, cruise taxis have always been an important competition point for online car-hailing platforms.

In September 2020, Didi announced that it would upgrade its taxi business to "Kuaixin Taxi", and would invest 100 million yuan in special subsidies to issue taxi coupons for passengers and increase the number of orders and income for drivers. Didi also said at the time that in the next three years, Kuaidi New Taxi will continue to subsidize 1 billion yuan in three stages to create a "lower-cost taxi experience" model.

Behind the online car-hailing platform has been committed to cruising taxis online, Pan Helin, a well-known economist, believes that the integration of online car-hailing platforms to increase the number of patrol networks comes from the fact that in order to cover more travel scenarios, but also to reduce the bottleneck of insufficient vehicle capacity and improve the scale of the platform's business, "Because taxis for the platform means the enhancement of capacity and customer acquisition capabilities, all platforms are competing for taxi drivers to join the platform." He told reporters.

Pan and Lin also believe that the key to the competition in the online car-hailing market lies in the scale effect under the coverage of transportation capacity, cruise taxis are part of the transportation capacity, and the same is true of online car-hailing, "so in the online car-hailing market, platforms with scale advantages can win in the competition." ”

Zhang Yi, founder of iiMedia Consulting, told the China Times that AutoNavi's continued increase in network patrol integration can be seen as a peripheral action for its offensive in the online car-hailing market. At the same time, he also believes that "how the online car-hailing platform can empower cruise taxis is the premise for the smooth development of its online car-hailing business." ”

Editor-in-charge: Huang Xingli Editor-in-chief: Han Feng

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