Didi Chuxing, which specializes in taxi and hitchhiking services, has filed a prospectus with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for its IPO, which will be the first public offering by a Chinese ride-sharing company.

       According to the prospectus, Tida-Chuxing's GTV (Gross Transaction Value, which is usually measured by platform companies' revenue indicators) reached 11 billion yuan in 2019, of which the hitch-ride business revenue was 8.5 billion yuan, an increase of 347.4% year-on-year. Dida ranks first in China's hitch-hiking market, with a market share of 66.5% in 2019, covering 366 cities.

       In terms of revenue and profits, 2019 ticked up and turned profitable. According to the prospectus, The revenue of Tidat in 2017, 2018 and 2019 were 489.35 million yuan, 117 million yuan and 581 million yuan respectively, among which, the revenue of Tidat in 2019 increased by about four times compared with 2018, and it successfully realized positive operating profit, reaching 172 million yuan. In the first half of this year, It posted an even bigger increase in adjusted profit of $150 million.

       In the second half of 2019, Didi launched "taxi assistant" and "smart code", which provided a new idea for taxi recruitment business. Up to now, Tidat has cooperated with four cities to develop a comprehensive smart taxi. As of June 30, 2020, Dida has provided online rental services in 86 cities and established strategic partnerships with 17 cities. Tidat's institutional shareholders include Nextev capital, IDG, Chongde Investment, Hillhouse Capital, JD, ctrip, etc., and their shareholding ratio before Tidat went public were 21.60%, 10.23%, 7.15%, 4.14%, 4.14%, and 2.86%, respectively.

Editor's Comment:

It is understood that At present, The main revenue mode of Dida comes from "information service fees". For Dida, who does not own a car and does not have to pay large subsidies and incentives to hitching rides and taxi drivers, both fixed and variable costs are very small. This asset-light business model allows It to scale up quickly with minimal input. Interestingly, Didi Chuxing also launched Kuaidi Taxi this year, so it's really interesting to see what benefits the two companies will bring to consumers as they battle over the mobility business.