By TIFFANY YUAN and  RENYUAN OUYANG

Surviving in the ridesharing business can be tough, but for companies such as Uber and Taxify the competition is becoming fiercer.

Since entering the Australian market in July, China’s Didi Chuxing has ripped open a slowly healing wound for ridesharing company Uber.

The 2016 merger of DiDi and Kuaidi booted Uber out of the Chinese market, with the strategic move winding up a $2 billion loss  in China for the Silicon Valley giant.

Notoriously known for their low commission rates for drivers and continuous promotions for users, DiDi now occupies 95 per cent of the Chinese ride sharing market with more than 30 million drivers.

Now that DiDi Chuxing is bringing the party to Australia, the battlefield is starting to get messier.

Douglas Toy, DiDi Mobility Australia’s Marketing Manager said that DiDi provided passengers 50 per cent discounts on off-peak rates and 20 per cent discounted on peak-time rates throughout August. Riders departing from Melbourne Airport also got a 30 per cent discount off their ride. 

“The response from drivers and riders in Melbourne has been excellent to date and the initial feedback has been very positive. We look forward to expanding to other Australian cities,” Toy said in response to the future expansion plans of DiDi.

While many ridesharing companies offered similar “first ride” discounts for newly signed users, DiDi plans to maintain not only first time, but also daily/monthly promotions.

Didi passengers can expect “a range of new offers/ incentives that will see new and existing customers rewarded with discounts of between 20-50 per cent off rides throughout September,” DiDi Chuxing PR and Marketing referral account manager Dexter Gilman said.

Despite the endless price competition cycle to entice riders, an equally important factor is a competitive commission rate for drivers.

The successful generation of critical mass that DiDi Chuxing achieves between both drivers and riders is the major factor to their current domination within the Chinese rideshare business.

So how exactly how do they fare in Australia market? To answer this question, we conducted a competition between three rideshare companies: Uber, DiDi and Taxify.

Video: Brittany Coles, Olivia Jenkins, Tiffany Yuan, Renyuan Ouyang