It's no more a dream to enjoy a free ride with the driver dressed in a suit holding the car door and even carrying the luggage for you, thanks to the heavy coupons companies have been throwing around since day one of chauffeur-driven car-on-demand service was launched in the country.
UCAR, a separately-operated brand under the country's leading auto rental provider CAR Inc, is the latest contender to the "cash burning" match, with the company launching the new business on Jan 28 with an intended subsidy scale of at least 2.5 billion yuan ($39.93 million).
Having only emerged last year as an extension to taxi hailing, the chauffeur-driven car-on-demand services have gained immediate popularity.
According to an online survey by Tencent Tech, 80 percent respondents have used unlicensed taxis in the past; 45 percent have tried chauffeured car services.
"The chauffeured car service will be a focus of competition in 2015," said Zhang Yanan, manager of the vertical industry research and consulting department of IDC China, adding that more announcements of deals and capital investments are expected in the sector.
