
Lyft Announces Strategic Partnership with Didi - mikedb
http://blog.lyft.com/posts/lyft-didi
======
gorkemyurt
I still think there is potential in Lyft's original idea "Ride sharing" rather
than a taxi competitor that both of these companies have become.

Really curious why such an option still doesnt exist:

"I am driving from Soma to Palo Alto so just notify me about the customers
trying to do the same thing"

Lyft shouldn't be anyone's full time or part time job. In my opinion that's
the only way they can co-exist with Uber.

~~~
macNchz
>"I am driving from Soma to Palo Alto so just notify me about the customers
trying to do the same thing"

This exactly BlaBlaCar's* thing...unfortunately they have no plans to come to
the U.S. I live in NYC and unlike most people here I have my own car. I often
drive to nearby cities to visit friends. I would LOVE to have a widely used
service like this, I'm so jealous to see, for example, BlaBlaCar's listings
for people looking to share a ride from Paris to Lyon this Friday evening.

[1] [https://www.blablacar.com/](https://www.blablacar.com/)

~~~
lcc
I absolutely loved using BlaBlaCar when I was backpacking in France. It was
recommended to me by several other travellers who all raved about it. It is a
fraction of the price of the train, and far more convenient (in terms of pick-
up/drop off locations and timing) than the bus. Plus I met some pretty cool
people along the way.

Unfortunately I'm not optimistic about a similar service doing well in North
America. The main advantage BlaBlaCar has in Europe is geography. Cities in
North America are more scattered. Also, French culture is much more open to
hitchhiking, which BlaBlaCar feels like a natural extension to. And European
road tolls are far more expensive than in North America, giving drivers a much
larger incentive to take some ridesharers with them. For example, on a long
weekend roadtrip along the Cote d'Azur my French friend and I racked up close
to 200 Euros in tolls, but happily made almost half of that back by picking up
BlaBlaCar passengers at various convenient points along the way.

------
rahimnathwani
This could be great for both companies in the long term, but in the short term
they need to solve the language barrier problem.

I assert that the vast majority of Lyft users (and even the subset that
intends to visit China in 2016) do not speak Chinese. Furthermore, >99.5% of
Didi's current rides are for Chinese passengers, and very few of their drivers
speak English.

This isn't just a problem for Lyft/Didi. I have used Uber 18 times in the past
week, exclusively in China. On all 18 occasions, I received a phone call from
the driver within 100 seconds of allocation. They asked me to confirm my
current location, and my destination. I did this in Chinese. 2 or 3 of the
drivers had passable English. The other drivers would have failed to
communicate with a non-Chinese-speaking visitor from the US.

Uber is experimenting with solving this by adding an additional 'English'
service next to the existing UberX, People's Uber etc. But they don't have
many drivers who can speak English, so the quoted wait times for that service
are something like 5x the wait time for People's Uber.

Didi isn't as reliant on foreigners for growth, so what is their incentive to
attract English-speaking drivers who can adequately serve Lyft customers?

~~~
contingencies
Your premise that drivers need to speak English is incorrect. We are talking
about two parties with aligned goals, smartphones and automated translation
tools available, even human translators available by phone if required.

However, I agree with your statement that foreigners are nearly irrelevant to
the vehicle booking market in China. Frankly this move sounds like it's mostly
about marketing hype.

~~~
rahimnathwani
"Your premise that drivers need to speak English is incorrect."

Next time you have non-Chinese-speaking friends visiting you in China, have
them try to get around using Ubers, without your help. I'd be very surprised
if their successful journeys (picked up and dropped off in correct places) are
more than 50% of the total.

With a taxi hailed in the street, you just need the destination address on a
business card or piece of paper. With Uber, it was often a challenge for them
to find you to pick you up, before they started calling every time.

~~~
contingencies
Uhh ... heard of GPS? Wifi? Bluetooth? Any of these could assist with geo-
locating the other party without the need for conversation. Similarly, a shot
of the surroundings with a phone camera.

~~~
rahimnathwani
"Uhh ... heard of GPS? Wifi? Bluetooth?"

Yes, I'm aware of these technologies.

"Any of these could assist..."

Yes, someone _could_ build a system/process which would solve the problem. The
thing is, no one has done that _yet_.

That's why Uber has introduced an 'English' service as a workaround. Sure, the
wait time might be 5x the other services, but the driver has a better chance
of finding you if you don't speak Chinese.

I stand by what I wrote earlier: a non-Chinese-speaking tourist hailing
regular Ubers in China (UberX or People's Uber) has a ~50% chance of being
picked up at the right place without excessive delay or confusion.

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bosdev
Assuming that Didi didn't have the resources to expand into the US directly
(and god knows Lyft isn't going into China any time soon), I think this is a
great deal. It allows Didi to maintain a reasonable modicum of pressure on
Uber and dip its toes into the US market without any significant resource
outlay. It doesn't though help Lyft to compete with Uber any better than the
somewhat lackluster job they've done of it in the past couple of years.
Perhaps the money, and the advertising it allows, will help. There is still a
significant proportion of people who have never used Uber or Lyft, what the
companies do to capture them is going to be very interesting.

~~~
RandallBrown
Is Lyft doing a lackluster job competing with Uber? My friends and I all use
Lyft and I hardly know anyone that uses Uber. This is in Seattle.

~~~
Silfen
And here's the problem with anecdata: Most people I know use both, or Uber
exclusively. This is also in Seattle.

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matznerd
Is it just me or did the phrasing in the following sentence make it seem like
they were helping with rides from the US to China...

> We are partnering with China’s largest rideshare company, Didi, to make it
> easier for people to get friendly, safe and reliable rides when they travel
> between the U.S. and China.

~~~
billforsternz
It's not just you.

------
jbob2000
I smell a buyout or merger coming. They can't take on Uber individually.

~~~
tedmiston
Don't we think transportation is big enough that both Uber and Lyft can
coexist "peacefully"?

Especially with Uber experimenting into non-ride services on top of their
infrastructure, like food delivery, etc.

Maybe I haven't followed closely enough, but my understanding is that Lyft is
still really focused on just making a good, friendly, affordable ride option.

~~~
oconnore
Especially given that most drivers I've seen use both the apps, and other
operating costs are pretty slim.

~~~
brianbreslin
customer acquisition costs are high, and driver acquisition costs are very
high.

~~~
tedmiston
At least, as long as drivers are human [0]. ;p

0: [http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/01/27/how-ubers-
autono...](http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/01/27/how-ubers-autonomous-
cars-will-destroy-10-million-jobs-and-reshape-the-economy-by-2025-lyft-google-
zack-kanter/)

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gkoberger
Calling it a "Strategic Partnership" right in the blog post seems so...
business-y. Their whole brand is being Uber's cooler cousin.

Why not say "You can now use Lyft in China!", and go from there?

(EDIT: removed third-person stuff because it wasn't relevant to my point;
thanks gkop)

~~~
gkop
I'm having trouble understanding your point. Yes, using the proper name "Lyft"
in describing themselves is the third-person, but that's exactly what you do
in your suggestion. And the author of the post mostly uses the pronouns "we"
and "our," the first-person, not the third-person.

~~~
gkoberger
You caught me going against my own complaint :) I guess the difference is that
theirs refers to the company, whereas mine refers to the product.

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tswartz
>As part of our global partnership, Didi also invested $100 million in Lyft.

Hmmm..very interesting. Looks like Didi is trying to get more aggressive in
Uber's own backyard.

~~~
mikedb
Would be interesting to know who gets the revenue when using another app.

------
brianbreslin
I smell a merger. Didi already merged with its main chinese competitor, raised
a ton of money recently, and is expanding faster than Uber in china. This
seems like a perfect fit. Lyft seems to not have their shit together the way
Uber does (even if their company SEEMS more friendly to employees and
drivers).

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fs111
words to stop using in blog posts: "mission", "reconnect", "communities". Can
you please talk like normal people instead of this marketing bla bla?

~~~
hardwaresofton
I understand the sentiment, but isn't that unlikely? That's like asking
startups to stop using the long landing page design that's become so popular
lately. The PR department (if the resources even exist) is interested
(usually) in expressing information without "rocking the boat", one way to do
that is probably to avoid treading new ground where prose/wording is
concerned.

~~~
fs111
I am just allergic to this "we are changing the world" speak, when all you
offer is a Taxi service. They did not fly to Mars or anything. They offer a
service where you can order a car to go from A to B. This is not a "mission",
they just make money. They are not "reconnecting" anyone, I just have to go to
places, you know, to do stuff.

Maybe I am just bitter...

~~~
hardwaresofton
Yeah it's definitely hyperbole most of the time. In Uber's case it might be
more truth than hyperbole though, since the taxi racket is pretty widespread,
and they're actually changing how people travel (which is something large
swaths of people do).

