Bottom line: Shanghai’s announcement of formal regulations for hired car services will finally provide legal status for Uber and Didi-Kuaidi, and will be followed by similar policies in other major Chinese cities.
Just a week after Beijing held a highly unusual meeting of 8 government agencies to discuss the oversight of private car services, China’s commercial capital of Shanghai is sending its own positive signal to this fast-growing group of companies led by US giant Uber and the homegrown Didi-Kuaidi. That signal comes in the form of a newly issued set of rules and regulations that hired car service providers will need to follow to gain formal legal status and remain in compliance with the law. (Chinese article)
This particular move looks incremental but also quite significant, since Shanghai is often considered a leader in developing and regulating new industries in China. In this instance we can probably assume the city was acting under directives from the central government, meaning Beijing has officially decided to support development of private hired car services that compete with traditional taxis. That means we can probably expect to see other major Chinese cities follow soon with their own similar guidelines, ending a period of regulatory uncertainty for Uber, Didi-Kuaidi and other smaller rivals. Read Full Post…
