Chinese ride sharing platform DiDi Chuxing has launched trials for the acceptance of payments on credit, in a move that some analysts interpret as a sign that the company plans to further expand its financial service offerings.
Trials of the “DiDi Monthly Payment” (滴滴月付) product were recently launched, enabling a select group of customers to make payments on credit for services fees incurred on the DiDi Chuxing platform.
The test product operates on a monthly basis, issuing customers with a bill on the first of the following month, with repayment scheduled for the eighth of that month.
Customer agreements for the product bill it as a “new type of consumer loan product,” that provides a quota of several hundred yuan during the trial period.
Zheng Lei (郑磊), the chair of the Digital Research Centre of the Hong Kong International New Economic Research Institute, said to Diyi Caijing that the DiDi Monthly Payment product represents an expansion of DiDi’s financial offerings and is a form of consumer finance.
“DiDi is a consumer company, and can provide in certain consumer finance services,” said Zheng.
Analyst Wang Pengbo (王蓬博) expects DiDi to further expand its financial services in future.
“DiDi has already made corresponding arrangements in multiple financial areas including payments, loans and insurance, and the launch of a monthly payments [product] is one channel for DiDi to raise the sickness and monthly activity of its own financial products,” said Wang.
“From this we can also see that in future DiDi hopes to further expand into the financial sphere, and further raise the business volume for its own financial products.”
