How did the company, which was tied with Uber and got rid of Shenzhou Yidao, complete its counterattack in just 5 months?

If you are a frequent taxi user, you will definitely find that more and more people around you are using Yidao in the first half of 2016. This is indeed the case. According to data from iResearch Consulting, Yidao is now catching up with Uber and is basically tied for second place in several key indicators. As for Shenzhou Private Car, it has been far surpassed by Yidao. In some indicators, Yidao is even nearly 10 times that of Shenzhou.

"Next, Yidao will continue to deepen its service experience to further surpass Uber." Yidao Car Co-founder and CTO Tang Peng said confidently.

How did Yidao achieve such a stunning turnaround in just five months?

The private car market has seen a three-way competition

After several rounds of subsidies and user market cultivation, competition in the private car market became fierce in 2016, and a centralized and echelon structure also emerged. In terms of active user coverage and order share in my country's private car market, Didi Chuxing ranks first with an absolute advantage, while Uber, Yidao and Shenzhou are firmly in the second echelon.

"We must admit that Didi is the number one in the industry. To be modest, we are now tied for second place with Uber. As for Shenzhou, we are no longer paying much attention to its data," said Tang Peng.

According to iResearch's latest statistics, as of the week of April 3, Yidao had about 1.35 million weekly active users, the same as Uber and tied for second place in the industry. From the data chart, it can be clearly seen that Yidao started to make efforts again in November 2015, and by April 2016, it had almost caught up with Uber in terms of weekly active users, which was 4.5 times the 300,000 weekly active users of Shenzhou Special Car. If compared with the average data for the entire first quarter, Yidao had 770,000, close to Uber's 1.07 million, while Shenzhou Special Car had only 320,000.

iResearch data also shows that since January this year, Yidao's weekly usage frequency has exceeded Uber. In the week of April 3, Yidao's weekly usage frequency was 11.33 million, exceeding Uber's 9.27 million and nearly 10 times that of Shenzhou Zhuanche's 1.2 million. Compared with the average data for the entire first quarter, Yidao's weekly usage frequency was 9.14 million, exceeding Uber's 8.26 million and Shenzhou Zhuanche's 1.32 million.

Tang Peng gave a detailed introduction to the "achievements" that Yidao has achieved so far: since the recharge and rebate campaign started in November last year, the recharge amount has exceeded 2.3 billion yuan, and the daily order volume has reached more than 600,000. Based on the above data, it can be seen that the goal set by Yidao at the beginning of the year to "become the second in the industry this year" is very likely to be achieved.

How did Yidao fight back and stage a major reversal?

So how did Yidao achieve this great turnaround? Tang Peng said that this was the result of Yidao's leading shared travel platform model and the power of LeEco's ecological counterattack.

In 2015, Yidao was once at a disadvantage in the competition in the private car industry. However, with LeTV investing US$700 million in Yidao in October last year and becoming its controlling shareholder, Yidao began to fight back and make a strong comeback.

At present, price war is still the main means for the private car industry to acquire users. The resurgence of Yidao this time is closely related to the price preferential measures it launched after joining the LeEco ecosystem and obtaining capital injection. At the end of November last year, Yidao began to implement the preferential policy of "the more you pay, the more you get", with no upper limit. Coupled with the overall price reduction policy, the price of Yidao's private cars has dropped by 60% compared with the original. Compared with several other friendly companies, price is no longer an obstacle for users to choose Yidao, which has created favorable prerequisites for Yidao's re-takeoff.

In addition to price factors, service experience is also the key point that distinguishes Yidao from other private car brands.

It is understood that Yidao is the only one among the major online car-hailing companies that allows two-way selection between passengers and drivers, which fully reflects the equality and mutual respect between the two parties. In addition, the setting of mechanisms such as passengers and drivers can evaluate and collect each other has enabled Yidao to effectively manage and improve the quality of drivers and passengers.

Tang Peng said that after joining LeTV, Yidao, in addition to its product and service features of "high-quality drivers, high-quality passengers, and high-quality vehicles", also has the advantage of "low vehicle prices" through the preferential policy of "the more you charge, the more you get", eliminating price barriers and allowing Yidao's service advantages to be rapidly magnified. Coupled with the continuous added value and chemical reaction effect brought by the LeTV ecosystem, Yidao has made rapid progress in the past few months.

In order to maintain this advantage and further upgrade the experience of users and drivers, Tang Peng announced that Yidao will be fully upgraded to version 7.0 on the passenger side and version 5.0 on the driver side in the near future.

The "2016 Q1 Private Car Market Report" released by the China IT Research Center shows that the transaction volume of China's private car market in Q1 2016 reached 28.45 billion yuan, a quarter-on-quarter increase of 19.1%. Experts analyze that there is still a lot of room for development in the private car market in the future, but policy factors must also be considered. In October last year, the "Interim Measures for the Management of Online Taxi Booking Services (Draft for Comments)" was publicly solicited for comments. After a re-evaluation and multi-department consultation process, it may be issued after May 1st, which took nearly half a year.

With the introduction of relevant policies and the injection of more capital, the domestic private car market is still full of variables, but what is certain is that under the condition of price convergence, the service, experience and safety of private cars will become the next round of competition points for each company.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.