Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi has pledged to tell its drivers who gets what from passengers’ fares after Beijing criticised its ‘unfair’ practices.
Didi Global Inc announced on Monday that it will now provide its drivers in several Chinese cities with more details on the fees they receive – the first big move by the firm after state media accused it of paying its drivers unfairly.
Didi said drivers in seven Chinese cities including Shenyang and Changchun will be the first to know details of how much they get and how much passengers pay for each ride through a new function it added to its app for drivers, it said in a Weibo post.
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The company, which is backed by SoftBank, Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, will continue to adjust its pricing strategy after receiving drivers’ responses, it said.
In May, China’s state news agency Xinhua said in an investigative report that Didi received more than 30% of what customers pay for a ride and criticised the policy that it described as unfair.
After the Xinhua report, Didi said in a post that drivers on average received 79.1% of passenger fees for rides last year and that 3.1% of fees went towards its profit.
Didi is being probed by several Chinese regulators over issues such as its handling of customer data. The company went ahead with its $4.4 billion New York initial public offering in June despite pushback later from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).
- Reuters and Sean O’Meara
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