嘀嘀、快的打车今起取消补贴

Taxi clients using mobile applications to book cabs will no longer be subsidized by providers of those services, China's two most-used taxi-hailing app companies said on Friday.

The announcements placed a marker in a multi-billion-yuan price war. "We will stop cash subsidies to taxi users and drivers by Saturday," Didi Dache said on Weibo.

"Long-term rewarding policies are on the horizon." Competitor Kuaidi Dache, with the biggest taxi-booking mobile application by market share, posted a similar online announcement. It said the company is looking for new ways to subsidize users.

Didi and Kuaidi control more than 97 percent of China's taxi-booking market, according to 199IT.com, an Internet statistics organizer.

Kuaidi is backed by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. It handled more than 6 million taxi-bookings a day in the first quarter, according to 199IT.com. It had larger city coverage than its rival. The Hangzhou-based company serves more than 260 Chinese cities.

Didi is available in fewer than 180 cities. Didi has spent more than 1 billion yuan ($162 million) in subsidies since January to gain market share. It claimed to have more than 100 million accumulated users. The Shenzhen-based Internet company Tencent Holdings Ltd funded Didi. Tencent's popular social mobile application WeChat provided Didi Web-based bill payment services.

The loss of subsidies does not seemto bother people who frequently use mobile applications to order taxis. "I will still use applications to book taxis because that's the easiest way to get a car in rush hour," said Han Yang, a 27-year-old working for an IT magazine in Beijing.

【资讯快讯】

乘客的“甜头”终于到了尽头，嘀嘀、快的两大打车APP正式宣布停补。昨天，嘀嘀打车通过官微对外宣布“打车立减”将在今天零点取消，快的也发出公告称，补贴活动于同日告一段落。

“嘀嘀打车5月17日(周六)零点开始暂停乘客端的现金奖励了！不过，随后会以更多更丰富的非现金方式继续奖励打车乘客。”嘀嘀表示，人们使用嘀嘀的习惯已经养成，补贴预期目标已基本达到。

快的方面也称，补贴活动将在今天告一段落。“后续我们还将不定期推出各种形式的优惠活动。”

据了解，快的、嘀嘀停止补贴针对的是乘客端，司机端补贴照旧，且乘客、司机端支付宝钱包扫码奖励依旧。

今年农历春节前后，嘀嘀打车、快的打车因为互联网巨头腾讯、阿里巴巴“土豪式”砸钱支援——嘀嘀共补贴超过14亿，快的亦在数亿元——成为移动互联网最耀眼的明星。

在几个月前，嘀嘀、快的两家还曾铆足劲把补贴金额顶上了十多块钱。经历过几轮降补，本次停补前，在北京使用APP打车，能获得3块钱补贴。