Comparing Ride Hailing Services: Uber Versus DiDi In Mexico City?

There has been much consolidation among various ride-hailing services, and some previously regional players, like Bolt, originally from Estonia, have expanded to other continents. I have almost all the ride-hailing apps on my phone, and the only difficulty is that you don’t always know which […]

May 23, 2025 - 04:15

There has been much consolidation among various ride-hailing services, and some previously regional players, like Bolt, originally from Estonia, have expanded to other continents.

I have almost all the ride-hailing apps on my phone, and the only difficulty is that you don’t always know which one operates in which market (and which has exited since my previous visit).

The fares in Mexico City are all over the map, and the two major players currently are Uber and DiDi (wasn’t Cabify also in this market before?).

I was surprised last week when I opened the Uber and DiDi apps at MEX, and there was quite a bit of a price difference between them (drivers usually have all the apps installed as well).

I had no issues with the DiDi ride, which saved quite a bit over Uber. However, the ride back to the airport was slightly cheaper using Uber.

The situation in Lima was quite fascinating, as they also had Yango, the formerly Russian ride-hailing app, in addition to Uber and Cabify.

I took Uber from the airport but decided to take Cabify back, as I had no experience with how reliable Yango is in this market and didn’t want to waste time this early in the morning.

Conclusion

What I have learned is that the market share leader tends to be the most expensive in any given city, and the differences can be significant, as the example from the Mexico City Airport above illustrates.

I wonder why there isn’t an app that shows the ride prices for all services available in the city.

Google Maps used to list them all, but that product has become pay-to-play (what happened to their Do No Evil motto?) and only displays services that pay them.

Uber’s app used to be far superior to its competitors’, but today, it is essentially a bulk product with no difference between various operators.

This Yango surprises me a bit. I used it in Abu Dhabi last month and before that in Bolivia (it must have been in 2024). They were operating in many markets in Europe before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but obviously had to look for opportunities in other places after.

Do you always compare prices among services? How do you find what apps work in what markets/cities? Please comment below.

Source