Shared Rides - China

The Shared Rides market includes bookings from Car Rentals, Ride-hailing & Taxi, Car-Sharing, Bike-sharing and E-Scooter Sharing. Other kinds of services, such as long-distance carpools (e.g., BlaBlaCar), are currently not contained in this market. Car Rentals contains vehicle rentals for private use that have been booked in person, by telephone, via the internet, or via an app. These are time-based rental deals with upfront fixed costs from professional car rental service providers such as SIXT, Budget, and Avis. When it comes to bike- and car-sharing, vehicles are usually owned by sharing service providers and booked independently by customers at any time. Customers need to enter into a contract with the sharing service provider in order to be able to book vehicles via a smartphone app, the website of the service provider, or by telephone. The vehicle is usually opened via smartphone or a chip card. Some car-sharing service providers, however, provide the car key in a key safe at the car-sharing station. Prices are calculated per minute or hour, with the money being debited from the customer's bank account. There are two types of vehicle sharing: station-based (e.g., Cambio or EVCARD for car-sharing, and Citi Bike New York or Stadtrad as examples for bike-sharing) and free-floating vehicle sharing (e.g., Share Now, SIXT share, or Enjoy for car-sharing, and nextbike or ofo when it comes to bike-sharing). Station-based vehicle sharing enables customers to pick up a vehicle at a sharing station and bring it back to either the same station or a different sharing station. Prices for station-based car-sharing are usually calculated per hour, and vehicles can be booked several weeks in advance, while for bike-sharing services, there is usually no significant difference between the price of station-based and free-floating services. When it comes to free-floating vehicle sharing, vehicles can be found all over the service provider's business zone and parked throughout this zone after use, in accordance with the traffic regulations. Free-floating vehicle sharing vehicles are booked via a smartphone app, and prices are usually calculated per minute. Some service providers offer and combine both aforementioned services: free-floating vehicles for short-term bookings and station-based vehicles for longer, planned journeys. Peer-to-peer vehicle sharing is another type of car- and bike-sharing: Private individuals share their vehicles, with the vehicles usually being booked online through an intermediary. However, peer-to-peer vehicle sharing is not included in this segment (Out-of-scope).