On September 22, it was reported that Tencent Maps would join forces with Didi to build an aggregate taxi-hailing platform, and both parties subsequently confirmed this. In this cooperation, Didi is responsible for providing ride-hailing technology solutions such as travel services and safe dispatch, while Tencent Maps provides the platform. It is reported that the program was finalized at the end of last year and has been piloted in five cities: Dongguan, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xi'an and Shaoxing before it was officially launched.

The "aggregated taxi service" was first launched by Amap. It mainly means that through a single platform such as Amap, Baidu Map, Meituan, Ctrip, etc., you can call the networks of multiple different companies at the same time. Make a reservation and provide taxi services. In recent years, this model has become a major feature of the online ride-hailing industry. Therefore, some people believe that "aggregated taxi-hailing" is becoming a fourth-party travel service provider in the field of online taxi-hailing. It’s just that Tencent Maps has only entered the market now. Is it too late?

Tencent Maps has limited capabilities

In the field of map navigation, Tencent Maps has long been unable to compare with the dominant players Amap and Baidu. According to statistics from the Qianzhan Research Institute, in 2018, in my country's mobile map application market, Amap ranked first in market share with 33%, Baidu Maps accounted for 32.7%, and Tencent Maps only accounted for 15%.

In QusetMobile's 2020 semi-annual China Mobile Internet Strength and Value List, Amap and Baidu Maps both ranked among the billion-level players in June 2020, with monthly active users (MAU) of 5.3 respectively. 000 million and 420 million. Tencent Maps ranks among the top 10 million players with 32.2319 million monthly active users. Judging from the monthly active users, the magnitude of Amap and Baidu Map is already more than ten times that of Tencent Map, and the gap is obvious.

The essence of the aggregated taxi-hailing model is to monetize existing traffic. However, based on the gap between Tencent Maps’ own business and Amap and Baidu Maps, even if taxi-hailing is launched, it will disrupt the industry. The effect is also limited.

What’s more, as early as 2017, AutoNavi Maps launched a taxi-aggregation service model, which has now been connected to Didi Express, Sunshine Travel, Caocao Travel, GO for All, Duoduo E-Travel, and Shouqiyue Car and other travel service providers. Baidu Maps has access to travel service providers such as Didi Chuxing, Shouqi Changxiang, and Sunshine Travel, and has also embedded the Apollo GO self-driving service into it. In order to complement the user scenarios, after the online ride-hailing business was suspended for more than a year, Meituan began to shift to an aggregation model last year and continues to this day. It is no exaggeration to say that currently all medium and large travel service providers have been harvested. In this case, why does Tencent Maps still want to enter the "aggregated taxi-hailing" game?

Speak through travel

As a tool product, maps have always attracted a large amount of user traffic. With the increasing travel needs of Chinese residents, the rapid changes in user usage scenarios, and the emergence of smart With the arrival of the wave of connected cars, map applications are no longer the single service they were a few years ago. From navigation to aggregating taxis and improving local life scenes, Tencent Maps, Amap, and Baidu Maps have seen the possibility of commercialization. and blueprint for the future. Taking AutoNavi as an example, advertising and aggregating online ride-hailing businesses have become its main sources of income.

So Tencent Maps needs to rely on the travel market to make itself more vocal in the map industry. Although the user accumulation and popularity of Tencent Maps are far less than those of AutoNavi and Baidu, Tencent Maps insiders clearly stated that they have never given up on maps as a strategic product. In the past few years, Tencent has also been exploring the field of travel.

Tianyancha information shows that in Didi’s total 20 rounds of financing, Tencent participated in five early rounds of investment, the earliest of which was $15 million for Didi B in April 2013. round of financing started. In 2015, Tencent made its Internet of Vehicles products public for the first time. In the past five years, it has reached cooperation with 29 car companies, including continuing to invest in several rounds of financing from NIO. It also purchased a large stake in Tesla 5 and became its fifth largest shareholder. .

In January 2019, Tencent also applied for multiple trademarks such as "Tencent Travel", "Tencent Ride Card", "Tencent Ride Code", and "Tencent Taxi". In June 2019, “Ruqi Travel” jointly created by Tencent, GAC, Guangzhou Public Transport Group, Didi and other partners was officially announced. Among them, Tencent holds 25% of the shares and plans to start from Guangzhou, expand to 5 cities within a year, and gradually cover the national market in the future.

At the recent 2020 Tencent Digital Ecosystem Conference, Tencent Vice President Zhong Xiangping said that Tencent currently has established cooperative relationships with 31 car companies and more than 300 travel ecological partners, and has launched 120 models. Obviously, Tencent’s layout in the travel field is getting faster and faster, involving many travel segments including smart travel, new energy, Internet of Vehicles, second-hand car services, automotive aftermarket, etc., and it is complementary in capabilities and diversified in interests with car companies. *Enjoy.

But Tencent’s goal is more than that. It hopes to enter the local life service field like Amap and seamlessly connect with more life service scenarios. Entering the travel field can strengthen its stickiness with local life. sex.

Didi needs Tencent

The reason why Didi chose Tencent Maps is that on the one hand it has cooperated with Tencent many times before, and on the other hand it is because Didi has Still facing severe competition. And for Didi, the current competition is not only competition with other online ride-hailing service providers, but also competition with aggregation platforms that directly connect users’ travel needs, including Amap, which Didi has already connected to.

In 2017, AutoNavi began to leapfrog from map services to the travel field. The following year, AutoNavi launched the ride-hailing business. Four months later, AutoNavi began to vigorously promote "one-click full-network ride-hailing" and connected Didi, Shenzhou, Shouqi and other online ride-hailing platforms are making efforts to integrate the taxi-hailing model. Since then, Amap has gradually increased its daily order volume by integrating multiple taxi-hailing capacity models, and Amap has become a force that cannot be ignored in the online ride-hailing market.

Liu Zhenfei, President of AutoNavi Maps, once said that AutoNavi will thoroughly understand travel, provide more exclusive travel services, focus on smart transportation and traffic management, and build information on the basis of doing a good job in map business. ecology. In September last year, Amap cooperated with 27 domestic online ride-hailing platforms to launch "If you dare to sit, dare to pay", Didi did not appear on this list. Since this year, Amap has reached cooperation with Beijing Jinyin Construction Travel, BAIC Taxi and Shenzhen Taxi. It is expected that the number of vehicles online in Beijing alone will exceed 30,000, which is close to half of the total number of taxis in Beijing.

It can be seen from Amap’s series of actions that its business scope and Didi’s business scope are increasingly overlapping, and the two parties are essentially in a competitive relationship. On the contrary, as Tencent is an important shareholder of Didi, the strategic cooperation between them will make the relationship between the two parties closer. The most important thing is that through cooperation with Tencent Maps, Didi can occupy a place in the online ride-hailing aggregation platform.

Aston Summary

In general, the cooperation between Didi and Tencent is the result of mutual needs. Some analysts believe that the advantage of Tencent Maps is mainly the diversion of Tencent’s ecological matrix. Tencent Maps can seize a larger market with the development of more businesses. However, due to the incompatibility between Amap and Baidu Maps in geographical information, road data collection, and updating The foundation in terms of capabilities and other aspects is very solid, and it has established its own barriers, so it will be difficult for Tencent to surpass Amap and Baidu Maps in at least one to two years. However, for consumers, competition is a good thing, as it can bring more and better service experience and convenience to life.

Picture?|?From the Internet

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.