As a follow-up of their research three years ago, in 2020, Professor Sun Jinyun from Fudan University School of Management and his team conducted surveys on ride-hailing platforms in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Chongqing.
More than 20 MBA student investigators gathered data on mainstream platforms including Didi, Cao Cao, Shouqi, T3, Meituan and Gaode by actually taking rides of different distances at different hours of the day. A total of 836 samples were gathered, of which 98.2% were valid.
Some results of the research serve effectively as a guidance to quickly get the most economic ride platform in different cities.
Astonishing as it may seem, street hailing turned out to be the most effective way to get a ride in the cities, with the exception of Beijing. Although the platforms are obviously offering vehicles with better conditions than the street-hailed taxis, they boast of zero advantage in terms of price and waiting period.
More disturbingly, results of the research also indicate that in order to keep the users waiting, many platforms tend to underestimate the waiting period and the price. Professor Sun pointed out that, the scale of the platforms is nothing but a castle in the sky if they fail to prove their values to customers.
