Uber cut back on promotions and discounts in China yesterday, a day after a merger with rival car-hailing app Didi Chuxing put an apparent end to a subsidy battle that cost the US company $1bn last year.
優(yōu)步(Uber)昨日減少了在華促銷和折扣,一天前,優(yōu)步中國與中國競爭對手、打車應(yīng)用滴滴出行(Didi Chuxing)合并,顯然結(jié)束了一場補(bǔ)貼大戰(zhàn),這場戰(zhàn)役導(dǎo)致優(yōu)步去年虧損10億美元。
With the ink barely dry on the merger Of Uber China with Didi, in which Uber and its Chinese investors took a 20 per cent share of the Chinese company, passengers were going on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, to complain that the cost of regular routes had risen steeply.
在合并協(xié)議上的墨跡還未干時(shí),乘客紛紛在微博(Weibo,中國版的Twitter)上發(fā)帖,抱怨常規(guī)路線的車費(fèi)已大幅上漲。根據(jù)合并協(xié)議,優(yōu)步及其中國投資者持有滴滴20%股權(quán)。
“My ride nearly doubled in price,” complained one user, while one Uber journey in Beijing that has regularly cost Rmb10 ($1.50) for the past year cost Rmb19 yesterday, as the normal discount was not applied.
一位用戶抱怨稱:“我的車費(fèi)幾乎上漲了一倍。”由于取消了通常的折扣,過去一年通常在北京只需花費(fèi)10元人民幣(合1.50美元)的行程昨日要花費(fèi)19元人民幣。
Uber China declined to comment on the apparent pullback on discounts, while its parent company in San Francisco said “nothing has changed from our end”.
優(yōu)步中國拒絕就折扣明顯取消置評,其設(shè)在舊金山的母公司表示:“從我們這方面來看一切都沒有改變”。
Uber’s prices, measured per minute and per kilometre, appeared to be the same as they were in previous months yesterday. But what had changed was the absence of discounts and special promotions. “There are no Uber discounts today,” said another Weibo user. The normal value of such discounts was not clear.
優(yōu)步車費(fèi)以分鐘數(shù)和公里數(shù)計(jì)價(jià),昨日的車費(fèi)似乎與前幾個(gè)月一樣。但變化是沒有了折扣和特殊促銷。一位微博用戶表示:“今天優(yōu)步?jīng)]有任何折扣。”通常的折扣數(shù)額并不明確。
Analysts said the apparent rowback on discounts was not surprising after a merger that marked the end of competition between two giants that had dominated the nascent car-hailing industry.
分析人士表示,折扣明顯取消并不令人意外,合并標(biāo)志著這兩個(gè)主宰中國新興的打車行業(yè)的巨頭結(jié)束了競爭。
For more than a year, Uber and Didi paid expensive subsidies to drivers — sometimes amounting to multiples of the fare — in an effort to woo users with low prices. The subsidies meant that until recently both car-hailing services were less expensive than a regular taxi.
一年多來,優(yōu)步和滴滴向司機(jī)提供高額補(bǔ)貼,有時(shí)高達(dá)車費(fèi)的數(shù)倍,旨在用低價(jià)吸引用戶。這些補(bǔ)貼意味著,直到不久以前,這兩家打車服務(wù)的車費(fèi)都低于一般的出租車。
Both saw explosive growth in passengers — Didi claims 14m passengers per day and 300m users, while Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick said in a blog post on Monday that the service had 150m users per month in China.
兩家公司的乘客數(shù)量出現(xiàn)爆炸性增長,滴滴聲稱每日出行次數(shù)達(dá)1400萬人次,擁有3億用戶,而優(yōu)步首席執(zhí)行官特拉維斯•卡蘭尼克(Travis Kalanick)在周一的一篇博文中表示,優(yōu)步中國每月用戶數(shù)量為1.50億。
Both companies were haemorrhaging cash in the subsidy war, however.
然而兩家公司都在補(bǔ)貼大戰(zhàn)中大量燒錢。