Chinese bike-sharing brands DiDi Qingju and Meituan Bike have once again raised their usage prices, causing frequent bike-sharing users to express concerns about the declining cost-effectiveness of riding.
According to a report by Jiemian News on June 18th, DiDi Qingju and Meituan Bike, two of China’s three major bike-sharing brands, announced on the evening of June 17 that they will implement a new round of price adjustments in phases on June 19 and June 22, significantly increasing the costs of long-distance rides. This price hike is currently limited to the Beijing area.
Specifically, this price adjustment has restructured two differentiated pricing systems for weekdays, weekends, and holidays, with the key changes focused on the initial price and the inclusion of ride duration.
Under the new pricing regulations by DiDi Qingju Bike, the weekday and weekend initial price is 1.99 yuan (RMB) for a 60-minute ride, with an additional cost of 0.1 yuan per minute for any time exceeded; the holiday initial price is 2.5 yuan for 60 minutes, with a time fee of 0.1 yuan per minute. After the price increase, the basic cost of riding for one hour on a regular day has decreased from 4.5 yuan to 1.99 yuan, resulting in a slight decrease in short-duration ride costs, but a significant increase of over 66% for riding one hour on holidays.
Meituan Bike implemented new regulations in the Beijing area starting from midnight on June 19: the weekday and weekend initial price is 1.88 yuan (including 60 minutes), with a time fee of 0.1 yuan per minute for rides exceeding 60 minutes; the holiday initial price is 1.88 yuan (including 60 minutes), with a time fee of 0.1 yuan per minute. Prior to the price adjustment, Meituan’s initial price was 1.50 yuan for 30 minutes, with a time fee of 0.1 yuan per minute.
In recent years, bike-sharing prices have been steadily increasing. In 2019, both DiDi Qingju and Meituan Bike raised their initial prices from 1 yuan for 15 minutes to 1.5 yuan for 30 minutes, marking the end of the one-yuan ride era. In 2022, Meituan Bike was the first to increase the prices of ride card packages, with the prices of the 7-day and 30-day cards rising by 50% and 40% respectively. From 2024 to 2025, Meituan Bike, DiDi Qingju, and Hello Bike successively compressed the initial ride durations, introduced peak dynamic pricing, and raised holiday prices, effectively increasing prices by more than 60% in hidden increments.
In response to this, Ms. Tian, who frequently uses bike-sharing services, told Jiemian News that in previous years, her monthly spending on daily commuting by bike was less than 20 yuan. However, after several rounds of price adjustments, her monthly expenses for the same frequency of rides have now exceeded 50 yuan, leading to a continuous decline in cost-effectiveness for travel.
The report suggests that with only Meituan Bike, DiDi Qingju, and Hello Bike as the remaining top players in the domestic market, all three major platforms have completed price adjustments across all dimensions, making it highly unlikely for a significant reduction in ride prices in the future.