2. • DiDi in Brief
Topics to cover
• Infrastructure
• Algorithm/AI
• Building customer insight
3. One-stoptransportation platform
2nd largest Unicorn - $56B
Valuation
Founded in 2012
Merger & acquired 2competitors
96% market share
2murder in 2018
11
Intro
Loses $1.6B in 2018
4. Infrastructure
Mar,2009
1st 4G
commercial
deployment
Dec,2009
. . . . . .
June,2012
2
4G
commercialization
globally
2013
Smart Phone sales:
1244 million
2014
Smart Phone sales:
680 million
2012
• As a customer to customer platform, infrastructure is playing a key role in its
business
Infrastructure
Smart Phone sales:
172 million
2009
5. 3
Algorithm
Algorithm/AI
• Algorithm determines the efficiency of DiDi’s business
DiDi Safety
Dispatching/
Route planning
DiMi credit system
After the murder, DiDi are now devoted to improve the safety of
rides by applying AI: facial recognition, speech recognition and
more.
There are two types of order: Long-distance and short-distance.
All drives want to take the long one as they will be benefited more.
DiDi developed a virtual credit system to incentivize drivers and
improve dispatching equality. Every short journey the drive take
will add points, and long-distance journey will be allocated to
driver with higher points.
DiDi are using Reinforcement Learning to build its dispatching and
route planning algorithm, where it could take dynamic environment
into considerations.
6. 3
Insights
Building Customer Insights
Data Data
• With huge amount of data, DiDi build its own AI lab and autonomous driving lab,
trying to analyze all those information and get to know more with its customers.
• For example, DiDi are now providing car insurance and loans to its driver, the quote
are based on driver’s historical data.
• To engage with more ideas, DiDi are hosting their own analytical competitions. DiDi
are also opening its dataset, which DiDi call it the GAIA initiative.
30 million daily orders, 106TB daily route data
7. Insights
MEITUAN – A Chinese O2O platform
Launched its own Taxi-hailing service in Dec 2017, with only one
week, it took 30% of the online taxi-hailing orders in Shanghai
Simply apply ICT and analytics ≠ SUCCESS, ICT & analytics are only tools
• Building customer insight is not about how many customer data you gather or
how many cities you operate. It is how much you really empathize with your
customer.
After all the criticize, what are DiDi doing now?
In Jan 2019 to Sep 2019, among all the conflicts, where someone was hurt,
happened in DiDi’s ride, 51.9% are alcohol related. DiDi also received 37607
complaints related to alcohol. After analyzing all the data and communicating with
its users, DiDi launched several safety features related to that.
For Driver, DiDi launched Drunk Passenger Function, once its activated, DiDi’s
safety team will be notified, the route will be monitored, and video recording will be
turn on.
For riders, the emergency contacts will be texted, and any unexpected route or
journey time will be monitored by AI, police will be notified if needed.
8. Summary
• ICT Infrastructure, 4G and smart phone, is the fundamental of DiDi’s
growth
• Algorithm and AI are the determinant of DiDi’s efficiency
• Algorithm, data analytics and other ICT technology are methods of building
customer insights
• However, the key to build customer insights is how you understand and react to
your customer’s need through the cold data
9. References
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2. Meet all of the world's startups valued at $1B+ in our ongoing list of all unicorn companies in the U.S. and abroad. (2019). The Complete List
of Unicorn Countries. [online] Available at: https://www.cbinsights.com/research-unicorn-companies [Accessed 12 Dec. 2019].
3. Liao, R. (2019). China’s Didi reportedly lost a staggering $1.6 billion in 2018 – TechCrunch. [online] TechCrunch. Available at:
https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/14/didi-reported-1-6-billion-loss/ [Accessed 12 Dec. 2019].
4. Statista. (2019). smart phone sales worldwide 2007-2018 | Statista. [online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263437/global-
smartphone-sales-to-end-users-since-2007/ [Accessed 12 Dec. 2019].
5. Digital.hbs.edu. (2019). DiDi: Improving Efficiency and Road Traffic with Big Data – Digital Innovation and Transformation. [online] Available
at: https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-digit/submission/didi-improving-efficiency-and-road-traffic-with-big-data/ [Accessed 12 Dec. 2019].
6. Lin, K., Zhao, R., Xu, Z. and Zhou, J. (2019). Efficient Collaborative Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for Large-Scale Fleet
Management. [ebook] Available at: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.06444.pdf [Accessed 12 Dec. 2019].
7. Hao, K. (2019). Car-hailing firm Didi has a new dispatching algorithm that adapts to rider demand. [online] MIT Technology Review. Available
at: https://www.technologyreview.com/f/612568/car-hailing-firm-didi-has-a-new-dispatching-algorithm-that-adapts-to-rider/ [Accessed 12
Dec. 2019].
8. Zheng, H., Chen, X. and Chen, X. (2019). How Does On-Demand Ridesplitting Influence Vehicle Use and Purchase Willingness? A Case Study in
Hangzhou, China. IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, 11(3), pp.143-157.
9. Meng, H., Ran, L., Chen, J. and Jiao, Z. (2017). Goal-Driven Approach to Optimize Matching Mechanism in Electric Vehicles Ride-Sharing
System. Energy Procedia, 105, pp.2273-2280.
10. Zhao, R. (2019). Didi moves to curb bad behavior among drunk passengers. [online] TechNode. Available at:
https://technode.com/2018/12/11/didi-policy-drunk-passengers/ [Accessed 12 Dec. 2019].
11. DiDi (2019). 2019年1-3季度《醉酒乘车安全透明度报告》. 滴滴安全发布. [online] DiDi. Available at: https://page.udache.com/public-
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CN&trip_cityid=0&datatype=101&imei=697cb12a9dacc60279bfac006cacf23d&channel=102&lng=-
1.573282&appversion=5.3.16&TripCountry=CHN&trip_country=CHN&maptype=soso&os=iOS&utc_offset=0&location_cityid=0&access_key_i
d=1&deviceid=697cb12a9dacc60279bfac006cacf23d&cityid=0&location_country=GB&phone=FV1gePZgRuv3iwKguVK4RA%3D%3D&model=i
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