Song Chen/China Daily

The popularity of mobile apps has made grabbing a cab much easier for the young and tech-savvy, while others say they are stuck out in the cold without rides. Gan Tian studies the debate.

Taxi-booking apps are bringing back an old issue to China's netizens: Is high-tech benefiting or harming the society?

In 2012, many urban dwellers complained they frequently could not get a taxi in big cities like Beijing , Shanghai , Shenzhen and Guangzhou .

Beijing-based office worker Yu Na frequently worked as late as 10 pm, and every time she tried to head home, she was rejected by taxi drivers. The reason: she lives in Tongzhou district, an area taxi drivers say is too far.

When businesswoman Qian Weiwei left Beijing Capital Airport and told the taxi driver she was heading for the Wangjing area, she was asked to get out. The reason? The distance to Wangjing from the airport was too close, and the driver could not make money.

Now that the information age boom has made smart phones popular, high-tech companies have developed apps to book a taxi.

The first app, Yaoyao Taxi, for example, connects a passenger to taxi drivers. The passenger sends his location, destination, and sometimes even a "tip", and if a driver thinks it is a good fare, he or she clicks a button and goes to pick up the passenger.

Wang Weijian, founder of Yaoyao Taxi, says: "We hope the app breaks the barrier between the passengers and the drivers, and links them. It helps people to get a taxi quickly and comfortably."

A taxi driver use Didi , a cab-hailing app to find customers in Beijing, capital of China, Feb 18, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

In 2013, more apps appeared, including Didi Taxi and Kuaidi Taxi. Most smartphone users were enthusiastic. On platforms like micro blog Sina Weibo and WeChat , users posted their experiences of using apps to successfully grab cabs.

However, a debate has stirred among users, especially after an extreme example was posted by an anonymous driver, who tweeted his story on Weibo, which spread.

He said he received an order from a customer near a hospital. On his way, he saw a senior citizen who might have been waving for taxi in the chilly winter for a long time. The driver couldn't pick him because he was supposed to collect the young man who sent the order through a smartphone. If he didn't, there would be a complaint.

"I uninstalled these apps, because they made me serve young high-tech people. What about those old people who want to take a taxi?" he wrote.

The debate had gone nationwide when IT giants Tencent and Alibaba stepped in this February.

Cheng Wei, founder of Didi Taxi, announced that people could pay their taxi bill via WeChat, an app developed by Tencent. If the order is made in this way, WeChat will pay another 10 to 14 yuan to the driver, and will pay part of the fee for the customer.

Kuaidi Taxi also announced similar subsidies for drivers and users. It collaborated with Alipay , an online payment escrow service offered by Alibaba.

High-tech users and drivers will save a lot of money, but regular taxi users complain that it's now much harder to grab a cab on the street, because drivers prefer to pick up customers who use these apps and offer extra tips.

Beijing taxi driver Xu Shugang, 45, installed these applications, and he says he has no time to worry about those who wave to him on the street.

"Of course I pick up customers who pay more," the driver says, with two apps turned on. Now he does not even listen to the radio, but focuses on "getting a good order" on these apps.

A Chinese resident uses the taxi booking app Kuaidi Dache backed by Alipay of Alibaba Group on his smartphone in Shanghai, China, January 23, 2014. [Photo/icpress]

"It's the fight between IT giants on mobile payment . It does benefit users, but it harms the regular market. There should be regulations on taxi apps," says Sun Junhua, a lawyer with Beijing Huijia Law Firm.

Last week, Shanghai transportation authorities called for a ban on taxi-booking apps during rush hours, contending that it has disturbed market order.

Huang Moran, a researcher at China Computer Network Center, says: "I believe the taxi-booking apps benefit users in an efficient way, and it is good to have 'mobile payment', which is the trend in the information age."

According to the WeChat tea m, mobile payment and business apps have many users in China. Consumers now pay bills in a diversified way. Apps like Didi Taxi, which supports payment via WeChat, combines services of social networking, LBS (location-based service), and O2O (online to offline), which adds convenience to daily life.

A recent witty conversation between two netizens provides a snapshop of the situation.

A user named "WongPok" tweets on Sina Weibo that he never uses apps to call a taxi.

"Because I know that if most taxi drivers serve only users of these apps, then our parents, young children, grandparents, migrant workers and farmers will see those empty taxis passing them without stopping (when they need to take taxi). True success does not harm the interest of the weak," he says.

A netizen jokingly responds: "I never use e-mail, because I know if everybody is using e-mail, the post offices will be shut down. My grandparents, migrant workers and farmers will never receive letters any more."

Technology and progress always pose such dilemmas. A Didi Taxi spokesperson recently announced that the company will devote 50 million yuan to encourage taxi drivers to pick up senior citizens. Kuaidi Taxi is providing another service, in which senior citizens above 50 years old can enjoy free rides. Details are yet to come.

The two Chinese taxi booking mobile apps for smartphones have been heating up their battle backed by internet giants Tencent and Alipay.