Broken Promises: Ride-Hailing and the Failures of Technological Solutionism
In a world where technology was often hailed as remedies for deeply rooted social ills, suggesting the opposite—how technology entrenches the very problem it claims to solve—may sound odd. Yet this paradox becomes evident for Didi Chuxing, China’s ride-hailing giant and an icon of digital innovations. With a promise of curing the perilous taxi industry, Didi burst onto the scene in 2012. Unfortunately, it didn’t take very long before the company turned into the very thing it proclaimed to revolutionize. Ironically, while disillusioned reality goes against the rosy pictures that the company painted, the much-hyped tale of the technological fix gained much purchase among a wide range of actors, consumers, drivers, technologists, industry and university experts, officials, popular media, and the state alike. It is unlikely that everyone is fooled by the unkept promises, nor is possible that no one questions the discrepancy. Indeed, some of the most incisive critiques of the platform are generated by people who directly engage in the policy-making process that supports its business in the name of innovation.
The paradox leads me to ask two questions in my book: why a tech company fall short in its fixing promises, and what, be that as it may, sustained the mythology of technological solutionism. To answer the two questions, my book draws upon in-depth interviews and observations with a wide range of actors, ranging from Didi insiders, drivers, policymakers, and industry experts to ordinary consumers. My goal in raising these different perspectives is more than unraveling the failure of technological fix in a local context, rather, it is aimed at offering a rich narrative and robust discussion of the persistence of this illusion, and its parasitic relationship to power relations.
In a world where technology was often hailed as remedies for deeply rooted social ills, suggesting the opposite—how technology entrenches the very problem it claims to solve—may sound odd. Yet this paradox becomes evident for Didi Chuxing, China’s ride-hailing giant and an icon of digital innovations. With a promise of curing the perilous taxi industry, Didi burst onto the scene in 2012. Unfortunately, it didn’t take very long before the company turned into the very thing it proclaimed to revolutionize. Ironically, while disillusioned reality goes against the rosy pictures that the company painted, the much-hyped tale of the technological fix gained much purchase among a wide range of actors, consumers, drivers, technologists, industry and university experts, officials, popular media, and the state alike. It is unlikely that everyone is fooled by the unkept promises, nor is possible that no one questions the discrepancy. Indeed, some of the most incisive critiques of the platform are generated by people who directly engage in the policy-making process that supports its business in the name of innovation.
The paradox leads me to ask two questions in my book: why a tech company fall short in its fixing promises, and what, be that as it may, sustained the mythology of technological solutionism. To answer the two questions, my book draws upon in-depth interviews and observations with a wide range of actors, ranging from Didi insiders, drivers, policymakers, and industry experts to ordinary consumers. My goal in raising these different perspectives is more than unraveling the failure of technological fix in a local context, rather, it is aimed at offering a rich narrative and robust discussion of the persistence of this illusion, and its parasitic relationship to power relations.