(Yicai Global) Feb. 17 -- China’s ride-hailing service providers received 3.6 percent fewer orders last month, the latest figures showed, despite some of them offering promotions.

Users placed a total of 704 million orders in January, down from 730 million a year earlier, according to data the country’s ride-hailing regulatory information exchange platform released yesterday. Orders jumped 5.3 percent from December.

Of the 17 firms with orders above 300,000, 10 increased the number from a month earlier, while seven had a decline, four more than in December.

Orders are closely related to promotions. For instance, Xiangdao Chuxing’s orders jumped 38 percent last month after the platform started offering newly-registered users a gift voucher worth CNY100 (USD15.80).

Drivers also sensed the decline in last year’s total orders. One driver who has worked for Didi Global for four years said the biggest change he noticed in 2021 was the drop in order numbers. “They fell about 30 percent,” he said.

As of Jan. 31, 260 ride-hailing service providers had licenses to operate in China, an increase of two from the prior month.

Editors: Xu Wei, Peter Thomas