Since yesterday evening, Didi App has crashed and become unavailable, causing concern. As of press time, related services have not been fully restored. This has also given opportunities to other competitors. Many netizens said they have begun to turn to ride-hailing platforms such as AutoNavi, Meituan, and Hello. The official Weibo account of Hello Hitch has also appeared on its official account to publicly compete for users.

As for the specific cause of the failure, some media broke the news that it was caused by an attack on Didi's system. Business sectors such as taxi-hailing and shared bicycles were all down, indicating that the problem lay in the underlying infrastructure. Some industry insiders believe that frequent downtime in the core business of Internet companies is one of the by-products of cost reduction and efficiency improvement. In the third quarter of this year, while achieving revenue growth, Didi suffered an adjusted EBITA loss of 300 million yuan and has not yet achieved profitability.


What's the reason why I still haven't fully recovered after a collapse overnight?

On the evening of November 27, users from many places across the country reported online that the Didi App was unable to call a ride, the map could not be loaded, etc. The topic #DidiBeng# also appeared on Weibo's hot searches. Some users found that Didi’s official website even failed to display properly for a while.

In the evening of the same day, Didi Chuxing responded on its official Weibo, saying, "We are very sorry. Due to a system failure, the Didi App service experienced an abnormality tonight. After emergency repairs by technical colleagues, it is currently being restored. We apologize again for the inconvenience caused to the majority of users and drivers."

On the morning of the 28th, Didi once again stated on its official Weibo that after overnight repairs by the technical team, Didi's ride-hailing and other services have been restored, and users can download the Didi App to use taxi services. Cycling and other services are still being restored, and all Qingju vehicles that can be unlocked or unlocked can be ridden for free.


However, embarrassingly, many users have reported that Didi App services have not been fully restored, and Didi Chuxing is still unavailable in Shanghai and Beijing. Some users tried to use Didi Chuxing to call online ride-hailing services multiple times, but a "network loading exception" prompt screen popped up, and the positioning was inaccurate.

"It's been more than ten hours, and I still haven't been able to repair the system and get it back online. I trust you so much. I suspected that there was something wrong with my phone, and I didn't think about your system. Good guy, I stood outside for half an hour, and there wasn't a single car. Qingju, you made me late."

"How many people have had their wages deducted for being late today? Many people have lost their perfect attendance because of this. Will Didi pay compensation for perfect attendance?" Many users complained on Weibo.

At present, many topic words such as # Didi Taxi Can’t Get a Taxi, #青桔hurt me to be late, # Didi Online Car Hailing and other services have been restored, and # Didi Beng # are still on Weibo’s hot searches.

It is worth noting that when Didi App services became unavailable, many users said they began to turn to other taxi-hailing apps. "I am very speechless. Didi collapsed early in the morning. Fortunately, I used Meituan directly and was not late." "I said that I couldn't get a taxi in the morning, so I had to ask Gaode to help me."

The official Weibo account of Hello Hitch also appeared to compete for users. It said: "I checked Moments early in the morning and saw everyone complaining about not being able to get a ride. In such a cold weather, who knows how hard it is to not get a ride... Or try using Hello Hitch to synchronize a ride? More than 30 million car owners have joined. Request a ride quickly, saving worry and money!"

As for the specific cause of the failure, some sources claimed that the Didi system was attacked in the middle of the night. Some media reported that senior IT technicians analyzed that from the performance point of view, taxi hailing and shared bicycles are fully integrated, and there should be isolation between different business sectors, indicating that the problem lies in the underlying infrastructure. "Attackers generally only have access to the application layer and cannot access the infrastructure. Either they are penetrated by the attacker, or their own system operations are accidentally down. Even the former is considered a system flaw and will be penetrated."

The trouble caused by cost reduction and efficiency improvement?

Regarding Didi's large-scale and long-term failure, some industry insiders believe that cost reduction and efficiency improvement may also be one of the reasons.

This person believes that frequent and long-term downtime in the core business of Internet companies is one of the accessories for cost reduction and efficiency improvement. The system investment is less, the maintenance resources are less, and the programmers are replaced frequently, and there are more bugs.

For example, he said that there is generally redundancy in the upstream phase of the business. In order to cope with the burst of orders at any time, the upper limit of the load must not be too large in the upstream phase, such as 70% in normal times. In this way, there is no need to worry about problems when encountering a small outbreak, which is enough to cope with small peaks;

Didi is indeed facing certain profit pressure.

Recently, Didi released its third quarter 2023 performance report on its official website. Data show that Didi achieved total revenue of 51.4 billion yuan in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 25%. While revenue is growing, Didi suffered an adjusted EBITA loss of 300 million yuan in the third quarter and did not achieve profitability.

Similarly, in the second quarter of this year, Didi's total revenue was 48.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52.6%; but the net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders was 267 million yuan. In the first quarter of this year, Didi’s revenue was 42.712 billion yuan, an increase of 19.1% over the same period last year, but it still had a net loss of 918 million yuan in the same period.

In the first three quarters of this year, Didi suffered a cumulative loss of 1.485 billion yuan.

Prior to this, Didi's 2022 financial report data showed that Didi achieved revenue of 140.8 billion yuan in 2022, a year-on-year decrease of 19%, and a net loss of 23.8 billion yuan that year. According to financial report information disclosed in Didi’s previous prospectus, Didi’s revenue in 2018, 2019 and 2020 was 135.3 billion yuan, 154.8 billion yuan and 141.7 billion yuan respectively; its net losses in the same period were 15 billion yuan, 9.7 billion yuan and 10.6 billion yuan respectively.

Since its inception, Didi has yet to achieve a quarterly profit.