Ride-hailing services such as Uber and Didi are a deflationary, VC-funded blessing and convenience to consumers (and lately, to Goldman Sachs). But to cab drivers, the services provided by the Ubers and Didis of the world are a mortal threat: in the past we have seen troubling images from many corners around the world, most notably Europe, when the taxi industry, threatened by the new service, take arms - in some cases literally - against ride-hailing apps.
But in this latest example from the central Chinese city of Xi’an, courtesy of Tech In Asia, we see what happens when thousands of Chinese cab drivers take aim at consumer convenience. As you can see in the images below (which come via some Xi’an-based Sina Weibo users), taxi drivers congregated in a central area near the city’s ancient bell tower and made themselves into a massive traffic jam.
The protest apparently ended the way most protests in China do: with a large concentration of a different sort of car: