DiDi and SoftBank to offer taxi-hailing service in Japan

China-based DiDi Chuxing will deploy its ride-matching app in Japan in partnership with investor SoftBank. The joint venture, DiDi Mobility Japan, intends to offer on-demand services and smart transportation to citizens and tourists in the autumn. Stephen Zhu, vice president of Didi Chuxing and CEO of DiDi Mobility Japan, says the new platform is intended to help taxi companies improve their efficiency, enhance user satisfaction and build more broad-based demand for taxi services. Through the agree
July 20, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
China-based DiDi Chuxing will deploy its ride-matching app in Japan in partnership with investor SoftBank. The joint venture, DiDi Mobility Japan, intends to offer on-demand services and smart transportation to citizens and tourists in the autumn.  


Stephen Zhu, vice president of Didi Chuxing and CEO of DiDi Mobility Japan, says the new platform is intended to help taxi companies improve their efficiency, enhance user satisfaction and build more broad-based demand for taxi services.

Through the agreement, DiDi will deliver its artificial intelligence-based transportation platform with SoftBank’s business base and advanced network infrastructure.

Additionally, the DiDi Greater China app will include new roaming features such as real-time in-app Chinese-Japanese instant message translation and local language customer support. Users from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan will be able to use the app to hail taxis in their native language.

The trial will be available for riders, drivers and taxi operators in cities such as Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka and Tokyo.

Urban Traffic Control

Related Content

  • Synthetic data v the real thing
    January 9, 2023
    ITS and smart cities thrive on data: but does all the data need to be real? Steve Harris of Mindtech explains why the answer could lie in combining elements of the real world with the synthetic
    Read More
  • Expert calls for high-tech traffic control
    November 29, 2012
    A leading Chinese transportation expert has called for China to develop smart traffic technologies that are more customer-oriented, while boosting greener, safer and more efficient modern transportation in the country. "China's ITS applications should shift their focus to provide more solutions for public transportation in the next decade, and the industry should get a new stimulus by responding to the needs of the market," said Wang Xiaojing, chief engineer at the Research Institute of Highway under the Mi
    Read More
  • Freight industry shifting toward a TaaS business model, say researchers
    February 22, 2017
    As the freight industry leaves behind traditional brokering practices to adopt digital and automated platforms, the connected truck telematics market is going through a period of intense evolution, according to the latest research from Frost & Sullivan. It claims digital freight matching solutions will bring about visibility in a disparate landscape, give rise to a truck-as-a-service (TaaS) business model and drive numerous partnerships. It is vital to be aware of key market developments, prime movers, and
    Read More
  • Strike action prompts commuters to try something different
    June 2, 2014
    David Crawford highlights responses to transit disruption on both sides of the Atlantic. Shortly before workers at San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) began a lengthy round of pay and conditions-related strikes in summer 2013, impacting on the daily lives of 400,000 communities, online ridesharing group Avego publicised a new web address: bartstrike.com. By the start of the following week, Avego was encouraging stranded commuters to download its smartphone app by offering them the chance in a raffle
    Read More

Highlighted Content