Today, I read a report about a communication meeting between DiDi Global Inc. and its drivers. There was an interesting detail: the platform wanted to tell drivers that it has been continuously reducing commission rates, while drivers wanted to express that regardless of commission rates, they need to see their income increase.

Ride-hailing and food delivery have always been two major employment reservoirs in the job market. In 2023, DiDi Global Inc. had over 19 million active drivers in China. Just in the second quarter of this year, DiDi Global Inc. added 770,000 new drivers.

And this is just one company. Moreover, these two types of work don't require educational credentials or background checks, have no age discrimination against those over 35, need no professional experience, and offer immediate payment per order - what you see is what you get.

However, based on the situation at this communication meeting, there's now strong confrontational sentiment in this employment reservoir.

I also came across a report from the China New Employment Forms Research Center titled "Employment Resilience in Urban Transportation: Employment Landscape and Professional Performance of Ride-hailing Drivers."

After surveying over 5,400 ride-hailing drivers across multiple regions including Beijing, Sichuan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Tianjin, Hebei, Zhejiang, and Heilongjiang, the report found that ride-hailing drivers are predominantly 40-year-old males, with approximately 70% turning to ride-hailing due to unemployment and inability to find other work. Over 60% of these drivers are their families' sole income source.

In April this year, a third-party organization compiled a ranking of preferred apps among males aged 31-45, with the top spot going to: DiDi Driver App.

Besides these unemployed groups, there are also seasonal workers like tea farmers from Wuyi Mountain and lychee growers from Guangdong who drive for DiDi Global Inc. during their off-seasons to earn money.

The report also noted that according to their survey sample, besides middle-aged drivers, recent college graduates accounted for 7.4% of DiDi drivers.

That's quite something - rather than becoming unemployed later and then driving for DiDi Global Inc., why not go straight to it?

Why do so many people drive for DiDi Global Inc.? The answer is simple. The report states that DiDi drivers in first-tier cities can earn 11,000 yuan per month. Even in non-first-tier cities like Ningbo, recent data shows that driving ride-hailing with pure electric vehicles can generate a net profit of over 7,400 yuan monthly.

Looking at last year's fresh graduate data, only 9.7% of graduates could earn more than 8,000 yuan per month.

At the communication meeting, agitated drivers even demanded that the platform increase fares. They questioned DiDi Global Inc.: would passengers really stop taking rides if fares increased by a few cents? Additionally, they worried that promotional coupons were essentially subsidized by drivers, that passengers could arbitrarily change destinations causing driver losses, and other issues.

I don't know if drivers look at macroeconomic data or understand economics, but I can give them an example.

Xiamen has a permanent population of 5.35 million with over 160,000 ride-hailing drivers. That's equivalent to one ride-hailing driver for every 33 people.

According to first-quarter statistics from Qingdao, 35% of the city's ride-hailing vehicles completed fewer than 5 trips per day.

A driver told me that many passengers now either use special discounts or carpooling, and even some business owners have started being cost-conscious, resulting in his income dropping by 30%.

Similarly, according to data released by Ningbo, daily operational indicators are declining across the board, with daily business volume and revenue per vehicle both dropping year-over-year, while drivers' average daily working hours continue to increase. In 2024, China had 159% more licensed drivers than in 2020, but orders only increased by 39%.

With reduced orders per capita, drivers have to extend their driving hours. According to the report, some drivers' daily online time exceeds 15 hours.

In this purely buyer's market, do drivers hope to solve problems by raising prices? Well, I think public transportation and bike-sharing companies might finally become profitable.

One detail left a deep impression on me: a driver called "Water Brother" spoke calmly for the first ten minutes. But later, he suddenly raised his voice: "I'm willing to work hard, I'm not afraid of staying up all night! But there's no money to be made! Whose fault is this? Whose fault is this!"

It's nobody's fault. DiDi Global Inc. beats around the bush and doesn't dare tell the truth - the pool is simply too full to accommodate more drivers.