網絡專車怎麼管 Car hailing regulations to set China precedent

A set of proposed regulations for China’s online ride-hailing industry are shaping up as a bellwether of how much internet “disruption” Beijing will tolerate — and are being closely watched by the country’s biggest tech companies.

爲中國網絡約租車行業制定的一系列擬議中的監管規定即將成型，它們將體現出中國政府將在多大程度上容忍互聯網的“顛覆”。中國最大的幾家高科技企業正密切關注這些規定。

Last Month the Ministry of Transport published draft rules that would legalise the nascent sector but could also stifle it with bureaucratic red tape, and gave the industry one month to respond.

上個月，中國交通部公佈了相關規定的《徵求意見稿》，並給了該行業1個月的迴應時間。這些規定會賦予這個新生行業合法性，但也可能會令該行業被官僚主義繁文縟節所扼殺。

That has thrown ride-hailing companies including San Francisco-based Uber and Didi Kuaidi, its local competitor, into a behind-the-scenes lobbying effort over the new rules, which could raise their costs prohibitively.

相關規定《徵求意見稿》的公佈，讓包括優步(Uber)和滴滴快的(Didi Kuaidi)在內的叫車應用企業，被迫加入了圍繞新規定的一輪幕後遊說活動（新規定可能會讓它們的運營成本提高到無利可圖的地步）。優步是一家總部駐舊金山的企業，而滴滴快的則是它在中國國內的競爭者。

The sector’s potential is huge. Didi, in an investor presentation in June, predicted that the Chinese ride-hailing market would be worth $50bn annually by 2020. Travis Kalanick, Uber’s chief executive, reckons China accounts for 30 per cent of his company’s rides worldwide and will overtake the US by year-end.

該行業的潛力是巨大的。滴滴打車(Didi)在今年6月一次向投資者做的報告中預計，到2020年，中國叫車應用市場每年的規模或達到500億美元。優步首席執行官特拉維斯慍灓尼克(Travis Kalanick)估計，中國佔優步全球出車次數的30%，今年年底以前，中國的出車次數將超過美國。

But the regulatory environment is a wild card. It is technically illegal for private cars to operate as taxis in China, though enforcement is patchy.

不過，中國的監管環境卻是個巨大的變數。理論上說，把私家車當做出租汽車運營在中國是違法的——儘管這方面的執法非常鬆散。

More important, experts see the car-hailing rules as precedent setting. As companies including Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu push into heavily regulated, state-dominated sectors from finance to healthcare, the taxi industry is where many of the battles over regulation are being fought.

更重要的是，專家們認爲，這些叫車服務法規會確定先例。在包括阿里巴巴(Alibaba)、騰訊(Tencent)和百度(Baidu)在內的企業進入一個個受到嚴格監管、由政府主導的行業——從金融業到醫療保健業——之際，出租車行業是圍繞監管的鬥爭的一個主戰場。

Car-hailing regulations “will be an indicator, a precedent for things to come”, says Jenny Lee, Beijing-based managing partner at GGV Capital, which has invested in Didi Kuaidi.

叫車服務法規“將起指示作用，爲將來的事情確立先例，”對滴滴快的進行投資的紀源資本(GGV Capital)管理合夥人李宏瑋(Jenny Lee)表示。

“This is a space that all the big guys are in. It’s not a strategic sector, not finance, telecoms or media. The vested interests are local taxi companies, without a lot of political clout. If this doesn’t open up, it’s bad news for the rest of the [internet] industry.”

“這是一個所有大公司都參與了的領域。這不是一個戰略性行業——不是金融、電信，也不是媒體。既得利益者是沒有太多政治影響力的地方出租車公司。如果這個領域不開放，這對其他（互聯網）行業而言是個壞消息。”

The proposed framework would oblige internet apps to register all their cars as commercial vehicles, subjecting them to the same laws as taxis including a ban on vehicles older than eight years.

新規《徵求意見稿》要求互聯網叫車應用將所有接入平臺的車輛登記爲營運車輛，須遵守和出租車一樣的法規，包括8年就得報廢。

The new laws would require each driver’s car to be licensed separately rather than a being covered by a company licence. Both Uber and Didi say that roughly three-quarters of their drivers are part-time, and the new rules would force them off the road.

新規《徵求意見稿》要求每個司機的車輛單獨取得營運許可，不能僅由企業所獲許可覆蓋。優步和滴滴都表示，它們平臺上大約有四分之三的司機都是兼職的，新規將迫使這些司機放棄提供服務。

“Part-time drivers and their vehicles should be allowed on the road in order to make the sharing economy really about sharing,” says Didi. The company says most of its drivers do four to five rides per day, and licensing as commercial vehicles “would make it prohibitive”.

滴滴表示：“建議給兼職司機和車輛留出發展空間……順應和推動中國共享經濟發展的大潮。”該公司表示，滴滴平臺上75%的司機每天接單數不超過4單，如果要求網約專車車輛變更爲營運性質，“可能使大部分兼職司機和車輛退出”。

Didi Kuaidi, formed in February by the merger of Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, is backed by Tencent and Alibaba, China’s two largest internet companies, which have a combined shareholding of around 25 per cent. It says it controls 83 per cent of the car-hailing market.

今年2月，滴滴打車和快的打車合併爲滴滴快的。滴滴快的得到了中國最大的兩家互聯網公司騰訊(Tencent)和阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的投資，這兩家公司共擁有滴滴快的約25%的股權。滴滴快的聲稱其控制了叫車市場83%的市場份額。

Uber, in which Chinese search engine Baidu holds an undisclosed stake, is in second place with a market share that Mr Kalanick puts at 30-35 per cent.

優步在市場份額方面位列第二，卡蘭尼克稱達到30%到35%。中國搜索引擎百度(Baidu)擁有優步的一部分股權，具體多少沒有公開。

Both are optimistic about their staying power. Each expects to invest over $1bn this year in China, spent largely on subsidies aimed at grabbing market share.

滴滴快的和優步都看好自己的持久生存能力。兩家公司都預計今年自己將對中國市場投資逾10億美元，大部分用於補貼車資，其目的是奪取市場份額。

But there is no consensus in the government about how to oversee the sector, which licensed taxi drivers complain costs them money and jobs.

但目前就如何監管這個行業，政府內部尚無共識，而有執照的出租車司機抱怨這個行業讓他們蒙受了金錢損失，失去了工作機會。

Last month [October]Shanghai gave Didi the country’s first municipal operating licence after the company agreed to a far slimmer set of rules — a pilot programme many thought could be eventually rolled out across the country.

10月8日，在滴滴快的同意遵守一套精簡得多的規則後，上海市向滴滴快的頒發了中國首張市級網絡約租車平臺資質許可證。很多人認爲，這一試點最終可能推廣至全國。

Optimism evaporated when the transport ministry just days later published its national rules.

樂觀情緒沒有持續多久——僅兩天後，交通部便發佈了全國性專車法規《徵求意見稿》。

“There are some positive bases and we’re very encouraged,” says Didi. The draft framework “actually recognises the legal existence of the car-hailing industry — but legal within a pretty constrictive set of rules”.

滴滴表示，“有一些理由保持樂觀，我們非常受鼓舞”，意見稿“實際承認了叫車行業存在的合法性——但只在一套限制相當嚴格的法規範圍內具有合法性。”

In China, where respect for authority is good business practice, Didi and Uber have couched their dissent carefully. But citizen groups and experts on regulation — who claim to have no connection to the industry — have begun a loud campaign against the proposed rules.

在中國，尊重當局是對經營有益的做法，滴滴和優步表達異議時都非常謹慎。但民間組織和法規方面的專家——這些專家聲稱和該行業沒有關聯——已經開始積極發聲反對關於專車法規的《徵求意見稿》。

“There are massive flaws in the draft and it should not be enacted,“ wrote six economists last month in an editorial in Caijing, a leading financial magazine, because “it will severely hinder the development of the internet transportation service industry”.

在中國主要財經類雜誌《財經》上月的一篇評論中，六名經濟學家寫道，“《徵求意見稿》存在重大缺陷，不應出臺”，因爲“這種缺陷將會嚴重阻礙網絡約租車這種新型業態的發展”。

The outcry has forced the transport ministry into a public response.

這些抗議迫使交通部作出公開回應。

In an interview published by Xinhua, the official news agency, ministry inspector Xu Yahua said that “as a key service industry, it is necessary to have a set of industry admittance regulations”.

官媒新華社發表了一篇對交通部運輸服務司巡視員徐亞華的訪談。他在訪談中表示：“它作爲一個關係人民羣衆出行安全的重要服務性行業，我們制定必要的市場準入條件和服務規範也是必須的。”

But he added: “As for exactly how this will be done, we need to listen to the suggestions from society, and gradually perfect it in practice.”

但他又說：“至於管理的具體尺度，我認爲需要充分廣泛地聽取社會意見，也需要在實踐基礎上不斷完善。”