China’s largest ride-hailing firm is suspending its Hitch services nationwide a day after police said a driver had raped and killed a passenger.

Didi Chuxing, the world’s biggest ride-sharing firm by number of trips, apologisedfor the suspension of carpooling service from Monday, which it said was the result of “disappointing mistakes”, while the company re-evaluated the product’s business model.

The suspected murder of the 20-year-old woman, whom police identified only by the surname Zhao, is the latest in a series of violent crimes that have fuelled safety concerns about the service which pairs car owners and passengers.

Zhao got into a Hitch carpool vehicle in the eastern city of Wenzhou at 1pm on Friday and sent a message to a friend at around 2pm, seeking help before losing contact, according to police.

A 27-year-old driver named Zhong was detained at about 4am on Saturday and confessed to raping and killing the passenger. The victim’s body had been recovered and an investigation was under way, police said.

Didi said that the suspect had no prior criminal record, had provided authentic documentation and had passed a facial recognition test before starting work.

It acknowledged, however, that a passenger had made a prior complaint against the driver, who allegedly took them to a remote place and followed them after they left the vehicle.

“The incident shows the many deficiencies with our customer service processes, especially the failure to act swiftly on the previous passenger’s complaint and the cumbersome and rigid process of information sharing with the police,” the company said.

The Hitch carpooling service has run more than 1bn trips in the past three years, the company said.

Didi has increased its safety measures for Hitch after the murder of a flight attendant during a Hitch ride in May sparked community outrage and led to the service being temporarily closed. The steps included limiting Hitch drivers to only picking up passengers of the same sex during early morning and late evening hours.



Didi should be punished if it fails to put customers’ safety first, China’s official news agency, Xinhua, said on Sunday.

