50% off Didi Rideshare Rides for 1 Month (from Launch) - Auckland Only

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DiDi

• 

  Christo on 21/10/2020 - 11:13

  +1

  DiDi is what they use in China

• 

  HappyChipMonk on 21/10/2020 - 11:44

  Would love another NZ ride share app for locals (other than zoomy)

  • 

    Lucas14 on 21/10/2020 - 13:04

    Zoomy is hardly supported by locals in the first place. No point adding another to the mix.

• 

  saxasianguy on 21/10/2020 - 12:37

  -1

  When I was in the U.S, I'd always use Lyft over Uber. Hopefully Lyft makes its way here eventually

  • 

    Lucas14 on 21/10/2020 - 13:05

    -1

    Why? There's already Uber, Ola, Zoomy and now DiDi. It's a race to the bottom for the drivers.

    • 

      saxasianguy on 21/10/2020 - 13:11

      -1

      Lyft existed way before Ola, Zoomy and Didi. And like I said, It's superior in the U.S

      • 

        Nil Einne on 21/10/2020 - 20:50

        Depends what you mean by "way before" and "existed" I guess. The Zimride Facebook & university based (mostly long distance?) car pooling service did exist for quite a while. But AFAICT, the mobile app more "taxi" like car halling service seems to have only really came about in 2012 like most of the other services i.e. not long after Uber launched properly and started to dominate that market. And indeed the Zimride service was split away from the Lyft one I assume because they are somewhat different

        It may help if we consider the definitions here. Car pooling is where the focus is on person B (or more) sharing a ride and some of the costs with person A who is going there anyway which seems to be what Zimride was until Lyft in 2012. Taxi or driving hire or "ride-sharing" or whatever you can to call it is where you're paying a semi-professional driver to get you from point X to Y. In some cases perhaps you share the car with person A (or more). However despite the common term "ride-sharing", the driver is nearly always just going to the place because you're paying them to take you from A to B. They generally aren't doing it because they plan to go there and the next thing they tend to do is look for another passenger to take from somewhere near B. And if there isn't another passenger on the car with you, there's no real "sharing" involved. The ride-sharing term came about I think because the apps tend to bypass any licencing etc requirements that are the norm for such services. As I said, Lyft only seems to have launched this in 2012, as I think did DiDi, Zoomy and Grab. Not sure about Hola.

        • DiDi

        In June 2012, following eight years, working in Alibaba's sales and Alipay divisions, Cheng Wei founded Didi Dache (嘀嘀打车), a taxi-hailing app, [through BeiJing XiaoJu Keji Co. (小桔科技; Xiaoju 小桔 means “little orange.” )].[11] 嘀嘀打车 then changed to 滴滴打车. “滴滴” means “beep beep” in Mandarin (like a car's horn). So 滴滴打车 literally means "Beep-beep! Mobility" [12]
        The application was the initial incarnation of Didi Chuxing's ride-hailing service, and consisted of an app for consumers to request taxis and other rideshare services for immediate pick up.[13] BeiJing XiaoJu Keji Co. developed the app.[14][15][16] In November 2012, Tencent invested $15 million in the company.[17]

        • Lyft

        Lyft was launched in the summer of 2012 by computer programmers Logan Green and John Zimmer as a service of Zimride, a long-distance intercity carpooling company they founded in 2007.[27][28]
        Green had the inspiration for Zimride after sharing rides from the University of California, Santa Barbara campus to visit his girlfriend in Los Angeles. He had used Craigslist’s ride boards but wanted to eliminate the anxiety of not knowing the passenger or driver. When Facebook opened its API to third-party developers, Green said he thought "Here’s the missing ingredient."[29] Zimride linked drivers and passengers through the Facebook Connect application.[30] By using Facebook profile information, student drivers and passengers could learn about each other.[31] Zimride eventually became the largest carpool company in the United States.[32][33] Green was introduced to John Zimmer through a mutual friend and the pair initially met on Facebook. The company name came from the country Zimbabwe, where, during a trip in 2005, Green observed locals sharing minivan taxis.[34][35][36] Zimride launched at Cornell University, where, after six months, the service had signed up 20% of the campus.[37][38]
        In May 2013, the company officially changed its name from Zimride to Lyft.[39] The change from Zimride to Lyft was the result of a hackathon that sought a means of daily engagement with its users, instead of once or twice a year.[40]
        In July 2013, Lyft sold Zimride to Enterprise Holdings, the parent company of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, to enable the company to focus exclusively on the growth of Lyft.[41]

        See also https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/07/29… and https://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/06/16/2012-the-summer-of…

        • Ola

        Ola Cabs was founded on 3 December 2010 as an online cab aggregator in Mumbai, and is now based in Bangalore. As of 2019, the company has expanded to a network of more than 15 lakh (1.5 million) drivers across 250 cities.[5] In November 2014, Ola diversified to incorporate auto rickshaws on a trial basis in Bangalore.[6] After the trial phase, Ola Auto expanded to other cities like Delhi, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad starting in December 2014.

        I came across https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/24-04-2019/uber-zoomy-ola-… which suggests Ola is from 2011 but this is close enough to 2010 that I think it may largely be referring to the same thing. The 2010-2011 date is intriguing because it's actually before Uber really launched to any degree but I'm not sure what Ola was really like at this time and whether they even had a mobile app, which is I'd say a key feature of these services. Also the taxi part may mean this was mostly focused on connecting people with real taxis at the time. The part Uber pioneered at least in much of the Western world, which others were forced to copy, was saying 'screw you' to any licencing requirements. That and also their AI and pricing model to ensure there were enough drivers and they arrived quickly etc. Of course by merits of being an app they also introduced easy driver reviews etc, partly to compensate for the fact they tended to ignore licencing requirements but also in some countries where existing taxi services were often spotty no matter the licencing, it probably helped improved people's confidence beyond the norms for taxis in that area.
        * Zoomy

        Zoomy was founded in 2012 by New Zealanders James Fisk and Neil MacDonald. It currently operates in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.

        Semi merged with Uber and never made it here, but another one:

        • Grab

        The idea of creating a taxi-booking mobile app for Southeast Asia, similar to those being pioneered in the US, first came from Anthony Tan (陈炳耀, Chen Bingyao)[20] while he was at Harvard Business School. Motivated to make taxi rides safer in Malaysia, Tan launched the "My Teksi" app in Malaysia in 2012 together with Tan Hooi Ling, another Harvard graduate. MyTeksi was started with an initial grant of US$25,000 from Harvard Business School and Anthony Tan's personal capital.[21][3][18][22] In 2014, Grab moved its company headquarters from Malaysia to Singapore.[10]

    • 

      Zyo on 21/10/2020 - 13:11

      How is it a race to the bottom for the drivers? Drivers will choose whatever platform gives them most work/percentage cut.

      If there had only been a monopolistic ride-sharing provider they can dictate how they charge user/driver and everyone loses.

• 

  saxasianguy on 21/10/2020 - 13:12

  -1

  Lyft > Uber in the States

  • 

    arn0ld93 on 21/10/2020 - 14:21

    +1

    but why lol you keep saying that but I would love to learn about how it's better? Ive used both in the US and its the same experience. Ride sharing is a utility, it's like saying na the power I get from Vector is way better Mercury…

    • 

      Lucas14 on 21/10/2020 - 14:38

      -1

      I'd like to know how it's better too… Same Drivers, Same Cars, wheres the difference apart from the User interface on the app?

• 

  Inmagic on 04/11/2020 - 10:36

  Soo does this actually work for anyone? I signed up well before launch yet there is no 50% off voucher/promotion in my account…