China’s ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is recruiting deliverymen in Wuxi, a city in southern Jiangsu province, for its new food delivery arm “Didi Waimai” (滴滴外卖 in Chinese), meaning that it’s probably rolling out take-out delivery service soon.
A job post of Didi Waimai has been circulating online since yesterday and a customer service line has been made available with regards to the recruitment. TechNode has reached out to Didi but they declined to comment.
TechNode Chinese, our sister publication, has talked with a customer service representative on the customer service line, and was told that “Didi Waimai will be available soon, but please refer to Didi’s future announcement on which cities specifically the service will be available in.”
TechNode, however, played around with the hiring page, and found that the only option for city choice is Wuxi, where Didi Waimai may first land. According to the job post, Didi is hiring “loyal deliverymen,” basically full-time delivery riders, to work at least 48 hours a week with a minimum monthly salary of RMB 10,000 (roughly $1,576). Other openings include part-time riders for those who can take orders freely and earn double compensations per order, says the job advertisement.
Didi has been looking to enter the food delivery sector as early as last December, and sources have pointed out that Didi had been engaged in the R&D of food delivery service. Now the recruitment message has again proved Didi’s ambition to take on Meituan on home turf—food delivery business. Meituan, known as the Chinese Yelp, owns businesses spanning from food delivery, restaurant reviews to booking tickets and hotels. Meituan was also rumored to roll out ride-hailing services soon in seven cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Fuzhou and Xiamen. It seems that the war of “food delivery + ride hailing” has just gotten started and is expected to get even more heated.