Car-hailing apps are big business, highlighted by recent large-scale, high-profile investments in Didi Chuxing and Uber, the two leading services in China. The country’s traffic-clogged urban centres have become battlegrounds in a fight for market share between the rivals that is going global.

As mobile usage in China has surged, so the consumer take-up of car-hailing apps has been swift and comprehensive. An FT Confidential Research survey of 1,000 Chinese consumers found usage rates above 60 per cent across city-tiers, age groups and income groups (see chart).

Users had made an average eight rides using car-hailing apps over the past month, spending an average total of Rmb181 ($27.5). Unsurprisingly, younger, higher-income consumers living in first-tier cities were the most frequent users, but 76.8 per cent of all respondents said they often booked rides using these apps.