On January 29, topics related to "AutoNavi Taxi Apologize" appeared on Weibo hot search. The incident is due to a number of netizens on social platforms who said that they could not take a taxi using the AutoNavi map app, and some people reported that the driver's side could not load the order information, etc., and even said, "I took 5 cars and all stood still, and I waited for 20 minutes in vain."
In response to the above problems, AutoNavi Taxi issued an apology statement through its official Weibo: There have been technical failures on individual online ride-hailing platforms on AutoNavi Taxi, which has affected some services. After emergency repairs, the service has been fully restored.
However, netizens don't seem to buy the above reply, "Last time Didi bug compensated 10 yuan coupon per person", "Your aggregation platform without effective supervision is really terrible" and other dissatisfied remarks flooded the AutoNavi comment area.
Seven Finance noticed that unlike Didi's self-operated platform, AutoNavi is indeed an aggregate online car-hailing platform. In February last year, Yu Yongfu, chairman of AutoNavi Group, also said that AutoNavi Map would adhere to the aggregation model.
The so-called aggregation model means that in addition to charging a certain percentage of commissions for their own brands, the aggregation platform that receives orders will also charge part of the commission. In short, it is "two ends of the money".
In this business model, according to LatePost, AutoNavi Aggregate Taxi will be profitable in 2022. As a third-party platform that connects users and drivers, AutoNavi also frequently has safety problems, and even the delivery of online car-hailing drivers operates without a license.
On June 26, 2022, a female college student and her friends in Zhengzhou were in a car accident while taking the "Youxiang Ride" recommended by AutoNavi taxi platform and unfortunately died. After verification, it was found that the online car-hailing car taken by the above-mentioned students was a vehicle that had not passed any safety training and supervision, and the driver was on the road without a license.
In this regard, AutoNavi said that "Youxiang Ride-hailing" has a local network taxi business license issued by the transportation department. However, "Youxiang Car-hailing" has an online car-hailing business license, which does not represent whether the driver and the vehicle involved have "two licenses".
Since 2023, AutoNavi has been frequently interviewed. Among them, on November 7 last year, the Shaoyang Municipal Transportation Bureau of Hunan Province and the Municipal Transportation Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Detachment once again conducted a special interview with Gaode Taxi.
According to "Hunan **", the cause of the above-mentioned special interview is that "AutoNavi Taxi engaged in illegal online car-hailing business in the name of 'aggregation', which disrupted the market order of fair competition, affected the safety and stability of the industry, and harmed the legitimate rights and interests of drivers and passengers".
It is worth mentioning that in addition to aggregating online car-hailing, advertising business is also another major income of AutoNavi Map**. However, too many ads pop up are bound to affect the user's experience. On January 22, AutoNavi Map and other apps were notified by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for infringing on the rights and interests of users.
Specifically, the version in the App Store is 138.2. The AutoNavi map application was named for "misleading users by 'jumping' the opening information window".
In addition to the mobility business, AutoNavi has also been exploring local life services. In March 2023, AutoNavi announced a merger with Koubei, a subsidiary of Ali Local Life.
According to Alibaba's interim financial report for fiscal year 2024, in the first six months ended September, thanks to the strong growth of Ele.me and AutoNavi's businesses, the revenue of Local Life Group was 3001.4 billion yuan, an increase of 22% year-on-year.
However, on the local life track, it has long been "overcrowded", with the "big guy" Meituan in the front, and the emerging "traffic Xiaosheng" Douyin, and grass planting platforms such as Xiaohongshu are also marching into local life services.
As of the second quarter of 2023, although the AutoNavi map has more than 7700 million monthly active users, but due to its strong tool attributes, how to successfully monetize traffic is still the primary problem.