If you have ever been to one of the major, and massively busy, cities in China like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, you will no doubt understand how difficult it can be to find a taxi. Thankfully Zhou Hang, CEO of Yongche, has an app for that!
The startup company Yongche, which translates to ‘Use Car’ has been designed so that users can book a taxi to collect them thoughout a number of larger Chinese cities.
Customers have the option to arrange a pick up via a mobile app, SMS, a website, buy calling and even through Sina’s Weibo microblogging service 24 hours a day.
Yongche’s interface is pretty good and even offers a map showing cars close to your location, but the service is only currently being ran in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Tianjin.
Also ares of these cabs can be as much as 5 times more than a regular taxi and as blogger, Willis Wee, points out the taxi’s are actually unofficial ‘Black Taxis’ which may cause safety concerns.
Despite the possible risks and rather high prices, Yongche has proven popular with the public, with more than 60,000 registered users, and investors, who have pumped in ‘tens of millions’ of U.S dollars in to the service!
