[E336]More than mobility|经济学人
本文音频及原文摘自杂志The Economist《经济学人》2016年第5期，Business版块。
Car-hailing apps in China
The ambitions of Didi Kuaidi, Uber’s Chinese rival, go far beyond taxi-hailing
Jan 30th 2016 | SHANGHAI
FOREIGN internet giants often struggle in China. Facebook, Twitter and Google are largely irrelevant[不相关;不重要的;不能接受的;不能适用的] on the mainland. Uber, an American car-hailing[打车;叫车] app that is conquering markets everywhere else, is also finding China hard to crack. But unlike those other tech titans[科技巨头;技术大亨], the taxi disrupter[破坏者;分裂者] is not being frozen out[(用冷淡的态度、竞争等)排挤,排斥;逐走,逼走] by unfair Chinese regulations favouring local firms[对本土企业有利的不公平制度规定]. Uber’s biggest problem is that it has encountered a world-class local upstart.
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▷Tech Titans are people or companies that have contributed the digital/Information age with innovative tech products or services. These people are usually billionaires and reside in Silicon Valley.
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Didi Kuaidi[滴滴快的] was forged last year by the merger[合并;并购;吸收] of rival taxi-hailing apps controlled by Alibaba and Tencent, two Chinese internet giants. It now dominates China’s online market for personal transport. Last year it arranged 1.4 billion rides in China, more than Uber has done worldwide in its history. It has perhaps two-thirds of the market for private-car rides (the source of most of its revenues[大部分收入来源]) and provides a taxi-hailing service in several hundred cities. Uber, with a third of the market for private-car service, this week announced plans to expand to cover 55 Chinese cities. Both have spent heavily on subsidies[补助金,补贴,津贴] to lure[吸引;引诱;诱惑] drivers to sign up.
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Unlike Uber, which in China focuses on private-car services, Didi lets users select a taxi, private car, shared car[拼车], shuttle van or bus to pick them up[穿梭/定制巴士;专车接送服务;往返运输]. During next month’s Chinese New Year mass migration[中国春节大规模迁移;春运], when millions of travellers will encounter sold-out flights and trains, Didi will help users share intercity rides at prices comparable to[比得上的;相差无几] train fares.
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It has also forged alliances with[与…形成联盟;合作], and invested in, Uber’s rivals elsewhere: GrabTaxi in South-East Asia[东南亚], Ola in India and Lyft in America. Jean Liu, Didi’s president and a former Goldman Sachs[高盛投资公司] dealmaker[交易人], helped Didi raise $3 billion to take on Uber. Soon half of the global market will be on her alliance’s technology platform, Ms Liu says, which will help both Chinese people travelling abroad and foreigners visiting China.
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But getting people from A to B is just the start of Didi’s ambitions. It plans to offer a variety of other services that make the most of its huge base of users and the trove of data[数据宝库] it holds on them. On January 26th the firm announced an agreement with China Merchants Bank[中国招商银行] (CMB). A growing number of Didi’s drivers want to buy a new car, and many have a steady income thanks to the app, but often lack formal credit[正规信贷;借贷]. Didi and CMB will start offering car loans[汽车贷款]—first to drivers, but in future perhaps to passengers as well.
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Didi’s app already lets passengers book test drives[试验驾驶,试车;试驾] of new cars on behalf of several carmakers, including Mercedes[梅塞德斯] and Audi[奥迪]. Some 1.4m customers have taken one of 92 models for a spin[兜风] since this service was launched in October.
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Perhaps Didi’s quirkiest new sideline is that of matchmaker. Hitch[搭便车;顺风车], its ride-sharing service[拼车服务], will soon allow drivers and passengers to select each other based on their shared interests. It already has a deal with LinkedIn, to let people join up their accounts on the two networks[将两个平台的账号相关联]. The intention of such initiatives is that white-collar[白领] workers, who often endure daily commutes[每日通勤] of an hour or two, will have more fruitful journeys during which business, friendship and maybe even romance will develop[甚至可能出现浪漫的机遇].
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▷ quirky ['kwɜːkɪ]
最高级:quirkiest
【注释】Your friend with the pink hair, the excellent vocabulary, and the totally inappropriate wit? You could probably call her quirky, meaning she’s unconventional and has a strange mix of traits that somehow end up being kind of interesting or charming.
adj. 古怪的;离奇的;诡诈的;独特的
He was tall and had a quirky, off-beat sense of humour.
他个子高高的，有一种独特、另类的幽默感。
▷DIDI Hitch is a social ride sharing service that was launched in June 2015. DIDI Hitch matches drivers and passengers who share similar routes.
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以上言论不代表本人立场，摘自《经济学人》杂志，仅外语学习之用。查看来源请点击“阅读原文”。