The industry, VTC is both costly, and risky : after Uber, it is the champion of chinese industry, Didi, who finds herself at the heart of scandals to repeat. After the rape and murder of a passenger by a driver Didi, on the 24th of August, the second case in three months, the start-up chinese is under the fire of criticism. In an internal letter, which leaked in the chinese press on September 7, the boss of the firm tries to defend the company, with an argument for the least original. According to him, Didi would not spend the profits before the safety of its users, evidenced by the figures of its activity in the first half. The company has recorded a loss of 4 billion yuan (500 million euros) due to subsidies to the users. Discounts have allowed Didi to ensure a near-monopoly on the market, after the takeover of Uber China, in 2016.
The internal e-mail, but conveniently leaked to the press, suggests a communication operation, after several salvos of a public apology of leaders of Didi. The general director of the company, Cheng Wei, responds to the charges that accumulate against the platform. “We are clearly not a company of evil, and we do absolutely not spend the profits before any” defends it. On the contrary, Didi has still not made profit, since its inception six years ago. In the first half, the company distributed $ 11.7 billion yuan of subsidies (1,46 billion euro), ensures the director-general. “We intend to invest our net sales in the safety and the user experience “, he adds.
An apology and concrete measures
There is urgency because the crime of the 24th of August is not the first. In may, a driver of his car pool service, Hitch, had killed a young female passenger, pushing Didi to promise improvements. This new case illustrates, on the contrary, the difficulty of the company to answer…
