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Car-and-driver rental startup Uber growing fast in Shanghai
Online Edition
UBER, the US-based mobile rental service for cars with drivers, has grown faster during its trial operation in Shanghai than in other cities where it is established, company officials said.
Sam Gellman, head of Uber's Asia expansion, told Shanghai Daily in an interview yesterday that the number of new registrations has been well above that in other cities where it has rolled out.
The company has been in trial operation for about six month before Thursday's official launch, when a new Chinese name for the service -- Youbu, or "graceful pace" -- was unveiled.
The service allows those who have downloaded its app on iPhone or Android to summon a car and driver from a rental agency. It can be used in English or Chinese -- unlike new taxi-hailing apps that use only Chinese -- and now users can pay via their Alipay account.
A ride on Uber usually cost about two times the price of a taxi ride for the same distance.
Gellman didn't reveal how many local car rental companies it's currently working with or the number of drivers that are employed.
"In Shanghai, the number of users who use our service more than once, or repeat riders, is higher than in most of the cities where we operate," Gellman said.
The Google-backed company now operates in Guangzhou and Shenzhen besides Shanghai.
It's also starting to allow users pay via Alipay as the number of local riders grows.
Previously, Uber passengers could pay only via credit card with US dollars.
Passengers can place an order through a mobile app and Uber will send the order through its system linked with dispatch centers at car rental companies. A driver at a nearby location will then pick up passengers after being summoned by car rental companies.
The domestic mobile transportation market is already crowded with taxi-hailing apps such as Alibaba-backed Kuaidi Taxi and Tencent-backed Didi Taxi, each having been provided with subsidies worth at least 500 million yuan for drivers and passengers to expand their market share.
Uber was first launched in San Francisco four years ago and now operates in 70 cities, and Gellman said he hopes the service will be a symbol of excellent transportation all over the world.
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