Kleine und mittlere Online-Fahrvermittlungsplattformen drängen massenhaft an die Börse – Amap ist der wahre große Gewinner

A number of small and medium-sized ride-hailing platforms are seeking IPOs, and the real beneficiaries may not be themselves.

T3 Chuxing, Xiangdao Chuxing, 365 Ride-hailing, and Huoli Chuxing are all heading to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKE), and Hello Chuxing is accelerating its plan for an indirect listing on the A-share market. The wave of IPOs for small and medium-sized ride-hailing platforms is about to break out.

The aggregation platform Gaode behind them could be the biggest winner of this industry and capital feast.

Most of these small and medium-sized ride-hailing platforms are based on the aggregation model. Once they successfully go public, they will have more motivation and resources to expand their business, and Gaode can naturally achieve steady growth.

On the other hand, Gaode and the Alibaba behind it have invested in a large number of small and medium-sized ride-hailing platforms. They can not only make capital gains but also strengthen their dominant position in the mobility ecosystem.

The Wave of Ride-hailing IPOs

At the end of May, Xiangdao Chuxing, which leads in the regional market of Shanghai, updated its IPO prospectus and still aims for the HKE.

Together with T3 Chuxing, Shengwei Times (365 Ride-hailing), Huoli Chuxing (Huoli Group), which are in the queue for HKE IPOs, and Hello Chuxing, which plans an indirect listing on the A-share market, a small peak of ride-hailing IPOs has already formed.

Since 2020, Dida, Ruqi, and Caocao have all aimed for HKE IPOs, and the first wave of ride-hailing IPOs has broken out. After four or five years, the second wave of IPOs is already "at the starting line", and the ride-hailing market is entering an era of "diversity".

The ride-hailing sector has achieved a market volume of over 400 billion yuan in just a few decades since its inception.

In the past, there were only taxis and no ride-hailing services. It was only when the wind of transformation of traditional industries by the mobile Internet blew here that some drastic measures were taken to address the problems in the taxi industry.

In 2010, Yidao Yongche was founded, one of the world's first ride-hailing platforms, which emerged almost simultaneously with Uber.

In the next two years, ride-hailing platforms such as Didi and Kuaidi were founded one after another, and Uber entered the Chinese market. With the support of various sources of capital, the "battle of a thousand groups" began in the ride-hailing market.

It was only when Didi acquired Kuaidi and bought out Uber China that the chaos in this phase of the ride-hailing market ended. Didi officially became the market leader in the Chinese ride-hailing sector and has held this throne to this day.

After a few years, automobile manufacturers recognized the value of long-term operation and founded their own ride-hailing brands. Behind Shenzhou Zhuanche is the former Shenzhou Group; Caocao Chuxing is controlled by Geely; Shouqi Yueche is a brand of the Shouqi Group; Xiangdao Chuxing was founded by SAIC; GAC gave birth to Ruqi Chuxing; Behind T3 Chuxing are Dongfeng, FAW, and Changan.

With the support of automobile manufacturers, they have quickly developed into the stable second tier in the ride-hailing market. Didi also has its strongest competitors.

But there were no new stories in the ride-hailing market until Gaode entered.

The map program Gaode introduced the function of "one-touch calling from multiple platforms" in 2017, established a foothold in the ride-hailing business with the aggregation model, and started a low-key operation.

By 2021, the entire Internet market began to enter the phase of a stock market. Alibaba planned to split its various business segments, and Gaode had the motivation to expand its own business.

So Gaode took advantage of the market opportunities, based on hundreds of millions of precise and high-frequency users, and continuously advanced with subsidies and the ride-hailing aggregation model until it finally reached the second place in the ride-hailing market.

The greatest value of Gaode lies in that, as a "platform on a platform", it separates the entry portal and service delivery in the ride-hailing market with e-commerce thinking and changes the business model of the ride-hailing market.

It can be said that if there were no Gaode, there would be no story in the second part of the ride-hailing market, and of course, no current wave of ride-hailing IPOs.

Gaode Will Be the Big Winner

Once T3 Chuxing, Xiangdao Chuxing, 365 Ride-hailing, and Huoli Chuxing successfully go public, Gaode will be the biggest winner.

Precisely because of the close connection between small and medium-sized ride-hailing platforms and aggregation platforms like Gaode, the ride-hailing aggregation model has reached its current market position. This has not only redrawn the landscape of the ride-hailing market but also given many insignificant small and medium-sized ride-hailing platforms a chance to rise again.

T3 Chuxing, the third-largest ride-hailing platform in China, has had the proportion of orders from aggregation platforms at 61.5%, 77.5%, and 85.9% and the proportion of GMV at 61.8%, 78.6%, and 86.4% in the past three years.

It is even more extreme for small platforms. Take 365 Ride-hailing of Shengwei Times as an example. From 2021 to 2023 and in the first half of 2024, the proportion of GTV generated through Gaode was 95.3%, 92.9%, 89.5%, and 93.4%.

In 2020, the proportion of aggregated ride-hailing services in the ride-hailing market was only 10.9%, and it rose to 32.5% in 2025. Market forecasts suggest that it could rise to 53.1% by 2030.

After going public, small and medium-sized ride-hailing platforms will have more motivation and more resources to expand their business, and Gaode can naturally acquire a larger market share.

Another hidden line is that among the ride-hailing platforms that have developed with the help of Gaode, Gaode and the Alibaba behind it often appear in the shareholder lists.

People only know that T3 Chuxing was founded by FAW, Dongfeng, and Changan, and each company holds 15% of the shares. In fact, both Tencent Holdings and Alibaba are founding shareholders and each hold 12% of the shares.

Xiangdao Chuxing was founded in 2019 and received investments from Alibaba and CATL in 2020. Later, Alibaba transferred its shares to Gaode and holds 6.47% of the shares before the IPO.

The parent company of 365 Ride-hailing, Shengwei Times, has long been the largest provider of intercity road traffic information services in China. Due to its position in the travel ecosystem, it received Series A financing from Alitrip in 2016. Since then, Alitrip has invested several times and is now the single largest shareholder of Shengwei Times with 27.01% of the shares.

There is no need to mention that Hello Chuxing was jointly developed by Alibaba and Ant Group and has become a small giant that has expanded from the bike-sharing industry to all mobility scenarios.

According to incomplete statistics, the ride-hailing platforms that have not announced IPO plans but have a capital connection with Gaode and Alibaba include at least Xiehua Chuxing, Dazhong Chuxing, Fengyun Chuxing, and Xindong Chuxing.

The corporate database Tianyancha shows that Gaoxing (Tianjin) Management Consulting Co., Ltd., the operating company of Gaode, directly holds 25.71% of the shares of Xiehua Chuxing, 5.26% of the shares of Dazhong Chuxing, and 16.67% of the shares of Fengyun Chuxing; Alibaba Venture Capital has invested in Xindong Chuxing and holds 30% of the shares.

If the second wave of ride-hailing IPOs progresses successfully, the Gaode Group can not only achieve rich book profits but also strengthen the synergy effects with small and medium-sized ride-hailing platforms and expand the ecosystem of its own ride-hailing aggregation platform.

The Struggle for Ascent in the Ride-hailing Market

The greatest advantage of the ride-hailing aggregation model initiated by Gaode is that it can quickly gain volume. By combining Gaode's user base and scenario convenience with the driving service capacity of small and medium-sized ride-hailing platforms, both sides can meet their needs.

However, the commission is the core source of income for aggregation platforms, which further tests the profitability of the already highly intertwined ride-hailing industry.

Shengwei Times stated in its prospectus that the service fee rate of the Gaode ride-hailing platform is 9%, and the rate of Alitrip's airport transportation aggregation platform Feizhu is even 15%.

From the performance results of the planned listed companies, it can be seen that small and medium-sized ride-hailing companies that rely on the aggregation model have to bear high sales and marketing costs, so most of them are still in the red.

Therefore, most of them have stated in response to investors' questions that they will take active measures to reduce their dependence on aggregation platforms.

The trend towards a stock market in the ride-hailing sector is becoming more and more obvious. In the next step, the industry is expected to move towards stable prices, a cooperative ecosystem, and sustainable development. In the ride-hailing aggregation ecosystem, Gaode needs to pay more attention to the impossible triangle between growth, profitability, and user experience.

Realistically, Gaode, as one of China's Internet infrastructures, has become almost indispensable for Chinese Internet users. But this star app with hundreds of millions of users has no other good business models.

Previously, Gaode was designed as a tool app. This was both an advantage and a weakness - to maintain the user experience of this super app, it was impossible to insert too many advertisements.

Later, Gaode entered the ride-hailing business. If you search for a destination in Gaode and don't drive yourself, you have to take a taxi. This natural scenario introduction is a prime example of Internet traffic monetization.

Last year, Gaode took Google Maps as a reference and, in contrast to Meituan's public rating, introduced an online rating system for offline consumption, the Gaode Street Scanning List. But from the beginning, it was stipulated that it would "never be commercialized", so the Gaode Street Scanning List seems more like a support for Alibaba's real-time consumption circle strategy.

The next core of the competition in the ride-hailing market is undoubtedly AI-powered robotaxis. Currently, the robotaxi market has been divided into three factions: technology companies, automobile manufacturers, and ride-hailing operators.

As a leading ride-hailing platform, Gaode has still chosen the cooperation model to enter the robotaxi field. What interests market observers is how many technological assets the cooperation model will ultimately leave for Gaode.

Recently, Didi Chuxing officially changed its name to Didi. This means that Didi is working its way out of the single mobility scenario and officially starting the long-planned transformation into a one-stop super life service platform.

The competition in the ride-hailing market goes beyond the ride-hailing sector.

This article is from the WeChat account