English Completely Removed from New Uber China App

By Bridget O'Donnell

The new Uber China app was officially released today, and it just got a whole lot more difficult to use.

In case you missed it, we reported last week that the app was going to be harder for foreigners to use following the Didi acquisition earlier this year.

Those changes became effective today with Didi Chuxing launching an updated version of the Uber app for both Android and iOS. Key changes include a Chinese-only interface (even if your phone is set to another language), Chinese-only payment methods (Union Pay, Alipay and Baidu Wallet), just two car options (People's Uber and Uber Black) and a base fee of RMB13 — the same as Didi's.

Uber China has said that features such as an English interface and the ability to accept international cards may be "added in future updates."

What the new Uber China interface looks like.

Foreigners can still use the app, as long as they have a valid Chinese payment option set up. As with Didi, you'll need to know a little bit of Chinese to use it.

How to download the new Uber app
If you tried using Uber in China today, you likely saw this message when you first logged in:
To change to the new Uber China app, simply switch the region of your phone's App Store to China and enter in your Chinese bank card details. From there you'll be able to use the new Uber China app, as well as any other apps that are exclusively available on the Chinese app store.

[Image via Boing Boing]

You May Also Like...

For more China news, click "Read more" below.