Customerslove them, because private transportation has never been this convenient, efficient, and accessible.
Taxi driversoppose them, because their rapid expansion and popularity have resulted in conspicuous customer drain for the traditional taxi market.
Government regulatorsfind them concerning, because they do raise questions about safety, fairness and legitimacy. Not to mention, they do not fit into any existing regulatory framework.
Which is why mobile app-based ride-sharing services, such as Uber and various indigenous cousins, have found themselves in a largely undefined gray zone.
In Beijing, for instance, where Uber and its Chinese look-alikes have grown phenomenally, contracted drivers have been operating in stealth mode for fear of heavy fines.
But despite all the complaints, resistance, even bans in some places, Uber and similar services have continued mushrooming and prospering.
The popularity of app-based ride-sharing has a lot to do with dissatisfaction with taxi services in the pre-Uber days.
In China, however, it goes far beyond a more pleasant user experience. Multiple recent surveys have highlighted the new services' role as job creator.
Uber and its local peers have reportedly become an important income provider for workers displaced in the process of reducing industrial overcapacity.
One survey even reported that being a contracted driver for Uber or a similar ride-sharing service provider is the only source of income for more than half of the workers laid off recently in the coal and steel industries.
Given the obvious loopholes in operation and management of such services, especially with regard to driver certification, security guarantees and taxation, it is certainly necessary to regulate the industry.
But an all-win, all-happy solution is difficult to arrive at precisely because such services are too new, too complicated for regulators.
The authorities made a daring, respectable move on Thursday by giving app-based ride-sharing legal status and introducing standards for the new sector.
Yet although it has been reviewed and revised repeatedly based on feedback from the public, the regulatory regime unveiled still needs further research and clarification.
The stipulations show plenty of thought has been given to key problems surrounding the brand-new business model. But they do display the inclination to include the new services into regulators' modus operandi, and render them another part of the traditional taxi service market.
Such an inclination may undermine the otherwise promising prospects of something the public clearly wants.
New rules on car-hailing service
The regulation on online car-hailing service was approved and released by the State Council on Thursday, giving legal status to Uber-like App platforms.
The regulation, which is to take effect on Nov.1, aims to regulate the taxi market and car-hailing services in China.
The regulation also requires that car-hailing platforms, such as Didi Chuxing and Uber Technologies, review the qualifications of drivers and their cars to guarantee safe rides.
The platforms are responsible for checking whether drivers' private cars are in good condition and are insured, and they must report the results to local transportation bureaus.
The threshold for drivers to enter the business is also regulated. Drivers with three or more years of driving experience and a clean driving record, including no record of dangerous driving, drug abuse or drinking and driving, are eligible to provide car-hailing services.
Responses from online platforms
The announcement of legalizing online car-hailing services dispels the regulatory uncertainties for major players such as Didi and Uber, which have invested heavily while fighting for market dominance in China.
Both Didi and Uber welcomed the new regulation in statements on Thursday, saying they believe it will usher in new growth for China's online ride-booking industry.
"We are pleased to see in the rule that a licensing and regulatory framework is created for ride-sharing platforms, drivers and vehicles," Beijing-based Didi said in a statement. The company said that "soon it will initiate the application for the appropriate licenses".
Liu Zhen, senior vice-president of corporate strategy for Uber China, said the company is "regulation ready" and "looks forward to working with policymakers around the country to put the regulation into practice".
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