From autocare to auto-related financial service, DiDi steadily moves along with the auto-related route to expand its orange ecosystem, which seems more suitable for it.
Source from Tencent Technology, DiDi announced that DiDi Financial published the Quanju (全桔, "桔" means Orange) system for mobility financial services on April 11, 2019. Quanju system provides one-stop financial services and solutions for service providers in DiDi’s car-hailing and mobility service ecosystem.
Quanju is an inclusive financial system dedicated to car-hailing financial services. Aiming to serve DiDi car-hailing service providers and car rental companies, Quanju has cooperated with auto financial leasing company Fengbang (沣邦融资租赁), investors, and insurers to customize financial products and services for DiDi’s users and partners. Quanju can simplify the financial service process through being a platform that connects financial service buyer side and seller side.
As early as in 2015, Ping An (中国平安), Chinese largest insurer, participated in DiDi’s series F financing in amount of USD 3 billion, which is the first time that DiDi introduced an insurer-backed fund as its investors. In 2016, DiDi received funding from China Life (中国人寿). Dated now, DiDi has obtained five financial plates/licenses from the state including third-party payment business license, microlending license, financial leasing license, factoring license, and insurance agent license.
In January 2019, DiDi’s financial service was officially released on DiDi’s app. The financial services include casualty and liability insurance products and other financial mutual-supportive plans like Diandixianghu (点滴相互). Being different from those financial services provided in the app, Quanju is more specialized in mobility-related financial services and have explicitly-targeted customer group.
Relying on years of data accumulation, DiDi has served more than 550 million users. It has constructed its customer database with multi-dimensional user images that could help in precision marketing and perform better in risk management. In DiDi’s ecosystem, the one-stop mobility financial service is fully under monitoring from pre-service to post-service stages.
From a car-hailing company to current mobility service provider, DiDi’s development is filled with challenges and chances. Valued at USD 56 billion, DiDi has changed Chinese mobility behaviors and the regulation system as well. However, the ride-hailing has become a burden for DiDi to carry on its business since policies are no longer leaning to its side and strictering regulations forced DiDi to cut off some of its business lines like Shunfengche (顺风车).
To compensate the losses generated from ride-hailing services, DiDi expanded its business from sole ride-hailing to a more complete coverage of mobility services such as Xiaoju Autocare (小桔车服) and previously mentioned DiDi Financial. As a platform, DiDi’s advantage lies in its user traffic and the ecosystem formed in years. It seems reasonable to start a business based on the customer pool in its ecosystem. When ride-hailing cannot be the major pillar to support DiDi’s business solely, then it builds more pillars (business lines).
DiDi has tried from extending business to reshaping internal structures to find a sustainable business model. The cooling-down DiDi Takeout is hardly a successful try but exacerbated the competition in the takeout delivery market. Moving back to its familiar automobility-related area, DiDi has more confidence and the steady development in the financial services area is a positive sign in the orange ecosystem construction.