I think that is only because black cabs already existed and were so popular in those areas. Uber legitimizes them, whereas before you would have had to worry about getting ripped off.

Suffice it to say, most of those drivers are probably on didi zhuanche and get more business from them than Uber. Its not that Uber is massive, but drivers have no concept of exclusivity so just monitor all the networks they can (even taxi drivers might have used multiple taxing hailing apps before the consolidation).

Didi kuaidi (and Uber) have done the impossible and made black taxis semi legal, since they were a fact of life already. They didn't have to build these markets from scratch, they already existed and were just poorly organized.

To me, this is the best point I've ever heard about uber.

Before I've in San Francisco I used to have a number of black cab drivers in my contacts.

We had set, agreed on prices for trips like "home to restaurant and back"

The prices agreed to were "low" by actual taxi rate standards and had the convenience of just calling the Lincoln car directly to come get me...

I thought it was a win!! (I lived where cabs would NEVER come to get me [i was banned by multiple cab companies] -- but then uber arrived...

Same black car service, no relationship building... And I paid a fucking fraction of what I was before.

Uber is the best thing to hit transport prior to tesla.

Give me an uber based self driving tesla and I'll commit some % of each paycheck to that.

Note when I say black cab, I actually mean 黑车 whose direct English translation probably isn't very precise. Essentially, these are illegal taxis that would have wandered the streets looking for fares when they can get away with it. They don't mean a legal black livery car as in say...NYC.

You didn't see them so much in the first tier cities (though they are still around) where there were enough taxis, but they were everywhere in 2nd/3rd tier cities, and often were your only private transport option.

> Note when I say black cab, I actually mean 黑车 whose direct English translation probably isn't very precise. Essentially, these are illegal taxis that would have wandered the streets looking for fares when they can get away with it. They don't mean a legal black livery car as in say...NYC.

Gypsy cabs?

No, just random migrants and rural residents with cars coming to the city to make a buck.

It's just called that for historic reasons[1], referring to any illegal cab, usually which solicits people for rides. They don't have to be of the Romani people.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_taxicab_operation#cite...

You did actually see them in the first tier cities - though maybe not in certain areas. For instance entire intersections right outside of Haidianhuangzhuang on line 4 in Beijing would be routinely blocked by black cabbies just chilling there waiting for fares. Maybe less so inside 2nd ring.

I think it's a very interesting point about legitimizing this existing practice. Maybe they'll be less prone to blocking intersections now if they have the ability source fares through an app instead of harassing people coming out of Universities, subway stations, etc.

Oh, I definitely saw them in Beijing, especially when it was raining. I also took them a couple of times.

But these new services...didi dache, brings new standards to the game, the cars have to be at a certain level, and are often rentals. So, the old black cabs with the little Chinese cars are kind of cut out of the service.

This is what happened when Uber launched in Auckland as well. In NZ taxis are already pretty lightly regulated - no medallion system etc - so most of the uber drivers were taxi drivers who were using Uber, Zoomy (local hailing app) or normal taxi fares.

Cause you are just at GuangZhou. Take a look at other cities around the west and mid area of China. DidiKuaidi still dominate those cities and will keep this position for a long time