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This report mainly focuses on the development of China's online car-hailing industry and representative platforms (excluding platforms mainly engaged in shared bicycles, ride-sharing, life services, etc.), analyzes the industry operation, user data, development trends, etc. in the first half of 2024, and lists platform innovation and development cases for research.

Report Summary

Core research and findings

In the first half of 2024, the oversaturation of the online ride-hailing market has further intensified: the number of online ride-hailing platform operating licenses has grown steadily, and the number of licenses has exceeded 7.1 million; many places have issued industry entry warnings and introduced detailed rules to raise the entry threshold and accelerate the compliance process.

At the same time, the industry still has room for growth, which is reflected in the continued growth in order volume, and the upgrading opportunities brought about by green travel (new energy) and smart travel (autonomous driving and vehicle-road-cloud integration).

In general, the online car-hailing industry has entered a mature stage, the market is close to full competition, and the platform structure is stable with one super and many strong players. Against this background, the industry will focus on two major directions in the first half of 2024:

First, we will operate existing products, strengthen and refine services to build a brand moat, improve service standards with customized models, and achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement;

The second is technological growth. By deploying new energy vehicle battery replacement, adding driverless taxis (Robotaxi), upgrading smart patrol network integration, and exploring the application of large industry models, we can enable improvements in operational efficiency and travel experience and achieve industry-level innovation.

Report main research cases

Didi Chuxing: In the first half of 2024, Didi Chuxing will maintain its active user scale and growth advantages, and further strengthen its core business:

Cooperate with CATL to establish a joint venture to build battery swap stations on a large scale, promote battery swap models, and deepen the layout of the ecological network in the battery swap field;

Andi Technology, a joint venture with GAC Aion, obtained a business license and plans to invest 420 million yuan in the Robotaxi market;

Didi Chuxing cooperates with Xiaopeng to jointly develop car models, integrating the resources of both parties to form complementary advantages;

Operations are becoming more refined, with functions and services improved in combination with travel scenarios and the needs of segmented groups.

Cao Cao Travel: According to Yuehu data, Cao Cao Travel's overall user operation performance continues to improve, forming an advantage in the proportion of young users and users with high online consumption power. In 2024, through the layout of new energy, customized vehicles, professional services, etc., strengthen technology, service and operation capabilities:

Strengthen new energy layout with customized models, battery replacement technology and systems, environmental protection ecology and operational capabilities;

Customized models create vehicle TCO advantages and high-standard service capabilities, improve driver income and user experience, and ensure platform profitability;

Proactively deploy driverless Robotaxi and build an intelligent driving platform with Geely Auto;

Anchoring high-quality, customized travel needs with a top hat car, deepening professional and barrier-free services;

Develop patrol network integration 3.0 to form an integrated online and offline solution and give full play to the platform's enabling role.

T3 Travel: Adding smart technology, strengthening quality services and travel experience, and forming differentiated advantages such as the proportion of heavy users:

Strengthen carbon inclusive cooperation and continue to build a carbon inclusive ecosystem;

Improve user travel experience based on high-precision positioning, algorithms, VR and other technologies;

Promote the implementation of the self-developed travel big model Qianmo in actual travel scenarios, and empower driver and passenger services, intelligent scheduling, and safety assurance.

Table of contents:

01 Operation of the online car-hailing industry

02 Analysis of online car-hailing platform users

03 Innovation Development and Enterprise Cases

04 Trend Outlook

PART 01 Operation of the online car-hailing industry

Industry policies: Many places have issued detailed rules and new policies to strengthen the supervision of online ride-hailing

Industry access and policy control requirements continue to increase, and compliance platforms will benefit in the long run

Compliance: In the first half of 2024, various regions continued to introduce new policies for online ride-hailing services with compliance as the key word, providing clear guidance for the development of the industry in terms of entry barriers, operating services, etc., and strengthening dynamic monitoring capabilities. Stricter supervision is a long-term trend in the industry. Platforms with advantages in service management, standardized operations, and safe operations will benefit from a strong regulatory environment and achieve accelerated development.

New energy: New energy online ride-hailing vehicles have long faced the problem of difficulty in obtaining insurance due to their high mileage and frequency of use. The "Notice on Promoting the High-Quality Development of New Energy Vehicle Insurance (Draft for Comments)" has been issued, requiring insurance companies to clearly cover new energy vehicles used for operational purposes such as online ride-hailing vehicles, and supporting the industry to optimize the insurance coverage of new energy commercial vehicle insurance, providing more protection and support for the new energy of the online ride-hailing industry.

Industry data: Supply and orders both increased, releasing potential in stable operation

The number of online ride-hailing platform operating licenses has grown steadily, exceeding 7.1 million, and the number of orders has reached a record high

Industry development: Online car-hailing capacity is saturated in many places, and market competition is intensifying

The industry has entered a mature stage, and the leading online ride-hailing platforms have adopted a refined operation strategy

Industry saturation: China's online car-hailing industry has entered a mature stage. The number of drivers and vehicles on the supply side continues to grow, but the growth rate of user scale has gradually slowed down, and the average daily number of orders received by drivers has decreased, and their income has declined. In the first half of 2024, Jingdezhen, Suzhou, Chongqing, Putian and other places have issued saturation warnings due to overcapacity in the online car-hailing market, publicly reminding people to be cautious in entering the online car-hailing industry.

Competition for stock: Against the backdrop of highly competitive market conditions, the overall position of leading companies is solid, and major online ride-hailing service platforms are seeking breakthroughs in travel quality, promotion and marketing strategies, brand differentiation and customized services in order to compete for users and market share.

Hot News: Continue to deepen the development of new energy and open a new chapter in green travel and industrial upgrading

Under the green and low-carbon concept, Didi Chuxing, Cao Cao Chuxing and other platforms increased their investment in new energy vehicle battery replacement in the first half of the year.

Development Background: According to the China Passenger Car Association, the proportion of pure electric vehicles in the online ride-hailing market has rapidly increased from 33% in 2018 to 87% in 2023, and the new energy of online ride-hailing has entered a stage of high penetration and deep development.

Enterprise layout: Under the green and low-carbon concept, platforms such as Didi Chuxing and Cao Cao Chuxing increased their investment in new energy vehicle battery replacement in the first half of the year to seize the opportunity of industry upgrading.

Hot News: Breaking through the ceiling with technological upgrades, increasing investment in digitalization and autonomous driving

Intelligent technology optimizes user experience, and the platform focuses on Robotaxi to compete in the autonomous driving track

Hot News: Customized models have become an important trend in the development of the online car-hailing industry

In a fully competitive market, the platform layout of customized online ride-hailing services will reduce costs and improve efficiency, and the future market space is broad

Customization trend: With low barriers to entry and high popularity in the industry, the online car-hailing market has an overall overcapacity. Platform layout of customized online car-hailing (i.e., vehicles customized by online car-hailing platforms to meet specific operational needs) has become an important path to reduce costs and improve efficiency and cope with a fully competitive market. Judging from the sales performance of operating vehicles and maintenance advantages, customized vehicles still have a large room for growth in the future.

Hot News: The platform continues to roll out services and focuses on user experience in multiple dimensions

The leading online ride-hailing platforms are becoming more professional, with enhanced barrier-free services and user safety protection capabilities

In the first half of 2024, in a highly competitive market environment, the online car-hailing industry will cope with growth bottlenecks through refined operations, and focus more on improving its ability to meet the travel needs of diverse groups and segmented scenarios. In this context, leading companies will deepen their efforts in barrier-free travel based on their own platform and technological advantages, and strengthen user safety based on intelligent technology, and continuously upgrade services.

PART 02 Analysis of online car-hailing platform users

User scale: The user scale of the online car-hailing industry has grown steadily, and new demands have been continuously injected

The industry's average MAU in the first half of the year reached 145 million, a year-on-year increase of 16.2%; the average daily number of new users remained stable at 600,000

The scale of monthly active users in the online car-hailing industry has been steadily increasing: In the first half of 2024, the travel service industry continued to heat up with the deepening penetration of online ride-hailing and the growth of travel demand. The number of monthly active users maintained an overall year-on-year increase on a high level, reaching a peak level of 152 million in April.

New users continue to enter: In the first half of the year, the number of active users continued to increase year-on-year on a high level, and the average daily number of new users has remained stable at more than 600,000 since February, continuously injecting new demand into the development of the industry.

User profile: Mainly young and high-spending users, with demands for quality and cost-effectiveness

Among the active users of the representative platform APP, those aged 16-25 account for about 20%, and those with high online consumption ability account for about 40%.

Young users are the main force, and platforms should focus on brand rejuvenation: The age structure of online car-hailing users is diverse, with young and middle-aged people as the core group. Among the representative platforms, users under the age of 35 account for about 50%, and the young group constitutes the mainstream; in the Hua Xiaozhu taxi APP, the proportion of active users aged 16 to 25 has reached 27%, and this proportion of Cao Cao Chuxing and Didi Chuxing is also over 21%.

The overall consumption capacity of users is considerable, and high online consumption users account for about 40%: Among the representative platform users, online users with high consumption power generally account for about 40%; among them, Cao Cao Travel provides quality travel services with customized private cars, and its online users with high consumption power account for the highest proportion, reaching 52%.

User competition: User traffic is concentrated on the top platforms, and the pattern of one super and many strong platforms is stable

Didi Chuxing leads in terms of active users, while Huaxiaozhu Taxi, T3 Travel, and Caocao Travel maintain stable positions

Platform operation: The leading platforms establish differentiated travel service advantages

Didi Chuxing leads the pack overall, while Cao Cao Chuxing ranks second in stickiness and is on the rise

PART 03 Innovation Development and Enterprise Cases

Caocao Travel's smart patrol network integration: Solution upgrade to enable cost reduction and efficiency improvement

Relying on digital technology to develop patrol network integration 3.0 and form an integrated online and offline solution

In 2024, Cao Cao Travel will combine its own digital technology, customized car capabilities and industry accumulation to deepen the layout of patrol network integration, upgrade and launch the Smart Patrol Network 3.0 solution, form an integrated online and offline patrol network integration system and implement it in Shantou area, enabling the intelligent upgrade and transformation of taxi operations, and bringing efficiency and experience improvements to both drivers and passengers.

Caocao Travel Smart Patrol Network Integration: Taking customized vehicles as the core, deepening patrol network services

Smart patrol network integrates customized vehicle models and solutions to deeply match user needs and enable industry upgrades

Caocao Travel released the Smart Patrol Network Integration Solution 3.0, with Geely Caocao 60 as the core, to deeply meet the needs of drivers and passengers through smart patrol network integration customized vehicles. Caocao Travel has gained insight into user needs based on its platform business accumulation, and combined with Geely's smart manufacturing capabilities to develop customized models with long service life, strong endurance, and flexible battery replacement to reduce costs. Through vehicle design and intelligent technology, it improves the driver and passenger experience and safety, forms dual advantages in models and services, and deepens the integration capabilities of smart patrol networks.

T3 Travel Ecosystem Model: Implemented in three major scenarios and entered the accelerated application period

Relying on big models to improve customer service processing and platform scheduling efficiency and strengthen user security

T3 Travel and China Telecom jointly created the travel industry big model Qianmo, which consists of decision-making capabilities, generation capabilities and multi-modal capabilities, and uses big model data processing and AI algorithm capabilities to gain insight into complex travel needs. As of the first half of 2024, the Qianmo big model has been implemented in three major scenarios: driver and passenger service, intelligent scheduling, and safety assurance, which improves passenger experience intelligently while optimizing operational efficiency.

PART 04 Trend Outlook

Demand trend: In the era of consumer stratification, pay attention to the diversified needs of online car-hailing travel

User groups and travel scenarios are becoming more extensive, and there are still growth points under differentiated segmented demands

Technology trends: Intelligent transformation accelerates, automated driving and big models reshape the industry

Guided by user experience and operational efficiency, artificial intelligence technology will penetrate all aspects of the industry

With the accumulation of travel big data, the upgrading of artificial intelligence algorithms, breakthroughs in autonomous driving technology, and the enhancement of vehicle-road collaboration, online ride-hailing services as a whole are moving towards a high-level intelligent stage. Hot topics such as unmanned driving and large travel models have been deeply deployed, driving the industry to develop in a more efficient and intelligent direction. At the same time, the leading platforms have transformed from traditional travel service providers to comprehensive travel solution providers that integrate intelligent manufacturing and services, upgrading their core competitiveness.

Report Description

1. Data sources

1) MoonFox iAPP, based on the industry data of the Aurora Cloud Service Platform and the mining of various mobile application big data by the MoonFox iAPP platform, combined with large sample algorithms to conduct data statistics and analysis; 2) MoonFox iBrand, based on a comprehensive brand insight solution, conducts statistics and analysis on multi-dimensional data such as store traffic, number of stores, sales, and user portraits; 3) MoonFox iMarketing, based on its own mobile big data and user portrait tags, conducts statistics and analysis on multi-dimensional data such as social attributes, geographic location, trajectory characteristics, and online behavior preferences of the crowd; 4) MoonFox survey data, conducts online surveys through the MoonFox survey platform; 5) Other legally collected data. The above are all collected in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, with the legal authorization of users, and the big data analysis report is formed after the data is desensitized.

2. Data cycle

Overall reporting period: April 2023-June 2024.

3. Data indicator description

Please refer to the notes on each page for specific data indicators.

4. Disclaimer

The data information provided by MoonFox Data is estimated and analyzed based on large sample data sampling statistics, small sample surveys, data model predictions and other research methods. Since any data source and technical methods in the field of statistical analysis have limitations, MoonFox Data is no exception. The data information estimated and analyzed by MoonFox Data based on the above methods is for reference only. MoonFox Data does not make any guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, applicability and non-infringement of the above data information. The legal consequences of any actions taken by any organization or individual based on the above data information have nothing to do with MoonFox Data, and any disputes or legal liabilities caused by it shall be borne by the actor.

5. Other notes in the report

Yuehu Data Research Institute will use its big data capabilities to conduct more detailed analysis, interpretation and business insights in various fields in the future, so stay tuned.

6. Copyright Statement

This report is produced by MoonFox Data. All texts, pictures and tables in the report are protected by relevant trademark and copyright laws. Some of the content is collected from public information and the ownership belongs to the original author. No organization or individual may copy or transmit it in any form without the written permission of our company. Any unauthorized commercial use of this report will violate the provisions of the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China and other laws and regulations.

About Moon Fox

MoonFox Data is China's leading expert in full-scenario data insight and analysis services. With a comprehensive, stable, secure and compliant mobile big data foundation and professional and accurate data analysis technology and artificial intelligence algorithms, MoonFox Data has launched products such as mobile application data (iApp), brand insight data (iBrand), marketing insight data (iMarketing), and financial alternative data, as well as providing professional research and consulting services from MoonFox Research Institute, aiming to use data to help companies gain insight into market growth and enable accurate business decisions.