Uber to Automatically Block Old App This Saturday, Nov 26
This is a repost of a guest blog we originally ran on November 12 courtesy of Shanghai-based blogger, radio host and Fudan University teacher Ryan King (ryankingcafe.com), who has comprehensively documented what we expats in China are to do now that Uber has removed its handy English interface.
Uber have now announced, via a bombardment of messages on their app, that the old version of Uber will be automatically disabled come this Saturday, November 26. Unfortunately, if you can't read Chinese then you wouldn't have known:
The message above roughly translates to:
In 3 days (on Nov 26) your Uber app will be automatically disabled.
To avoid unnecessary problems please download the new version of Uber as soon as possible.
99 percent of Uber users in Beijing are already using the new version of Uber.
The majority of drivers are also using the new version.
Read why these changes are occurring in the post below.
On November 3, 2016, Uber went through one of the biggest changes in its short history when it formally decoupled its service in China from from the rest of its worldwide operations. This has created much speculation as to motives, with a number of news outlets titling their articles to suggest that this was a deliberate attempt to 'lock out' foreigners from using the service in China. In this post, I will ignore the rhetoric, and just focus on answering a few of the questions that my friends and business associates inside and outside of China have been asking me.
If you don't use Uber in China, you might want to skip over the questions in the middle and get to the analysis at the end.
Basically, what happened?
App: Uber has effectively divided its app into two separate apps: one for use in China, and one for the rest of the world. Uber China does not work anywhere outside of China (including in Hong Kong from what I can see), while Uber International can not be used within China (excluding Hong Kong). Attempting to use the Uber International app in China will result in a message informing you that Uber cannot connect to the network (I assume the same will happen vice-versa, but have not been able to test yet).
Language: Uber China is now entirely in Chinese and has no English functions like it did previously. It is also no longer possible to type your destination in English, unless the location is stored in Uber's search suggestions under an English name. For all intents and purposes, you will now need to know (at least) your destination in the original Chinese.
Payment: There are three payment methods available in the new Uber China app - mobile payment services AliPay and Baidu Wallet, and cards issued by UnionPay. While many articles have reported that 'foreign credit cards cannot be used', the change is really about the card provider. The lack of any other options in the payment section suggests that even Visa and MasterCard credit cards issued in China cannot be used. It remains unknown whether UnionPay cards issued outside of the Chinese Mainland can be used or not.
Click "Read more" for the rest of this story.