It is just over a year ago and I’m trying to flag down a cab to send the kids to school. And it’s windy. And the temperature is below freezing. And there is freezing rain pelting the side of our faces. And the cabs are passing us one by one without stopping. It’s at that moment that I switched to Uber and from the next morning onwards booked cars from the comfort of our apartment or the building lobby.
Didi had been around for some time before that with the ability to book taxis ahead of time. I occasionally did this, or had a friend do it for me, when waking up in a hard to flag taxi place but in my apartment downtown taxis were mostly available in the mornings except when you really needed them. Once I switched to Uber the I quickly became a convert. About half the price of taxis, can get a car anytime, and can track the kids progress when I sent them to school or to some event. Uber app was also in English and was easy for me to set up payment. Over the year the service started to get more expensive and it felt like the quality of the drivers stopped as we were constantly having to communicate our location despite GPS.
One of the last times I used Uber to send the kids to school we were looking for a white car with 9X0 as the last three license place digits. We walked a half block to where GPS said it was, say the car, waved at driver and then tried to open the door. Door locked, we knocked, looked into the window which was tinted and tried to open the door. Still locked. Then the driver turned away. Turns out the place was P20. Uber still showed the car at the corner and when I called the driver he said he was coming. I cancelled and put the kids into a taxi.
Uber lost to Didi in the competition here. For a while it was great as a consumer. Both sides so hungry for the market they were subsiding our rides. But when Uber lost the Uber App was replaced with a China and Chinese language only App. At which point I switched to Didi and it’s Chinese only App as well.
Since we moved I’ve been taking Elisa to school using Didi (the elders kids school is a short walk away). The first day was similar to my first Uber day. Raining ice, winding, cold. I could not communicate well enough in Chinese with the Didi driver and needed someone to help me. Later I got the routine down and can take Elisa without help. After dropping off Elisa at school I then have a 10 minute walk to the subway so I can get to work. Fortunately a new service recently launched a couple months ago -- 1 RMB bike rental where you grab a bike and drop it wherever you stop. There are actually two such services and now you can see bikes returning to the streets of Beijing.