Didi Chuxing announces shut of hitching service, lays off two senior executives
Didi Chuxing (Didi) announced that it shuts the “hitching” service countrywide starting from August 27 and has laid off two senior executives after a Didi driver had raped and murdered a female passenger.
Police said the 20-year-old victim, surnamed Zhao, got into a Didi hitching car in Yueqing, Zhejiang Province at around 13:30 local time on August 24. An hour later, she sent a "help" message via WeChat to her friends before losing contact. 
According to local media, the victim's family and friends instantly contacted Didi's customer service and called the police after they received the “help” message. However, Didi did not offer the information about the car and the driver in time until several hours later. Since the best rescue time missed, the tragedy eventually happened. 
The suspect was arrested on Saturday morning and then the 27-year-old Didi driver surnamed Zhong confessed that he raped and killed the victim.  
Didi responded that the suspect had no previous criminal record and he registered as a Didi driver with real individual information, while used a fake car plate when committing the crime.
On August 26, Didi announced the process of its internal inspection, saying that the company will suspend the “hitching” service nationwide from the next day and will reevaluate its business modes and product logic.
Meanwhile, Didi decided to sack Hua Jieli, the general manager of Didi's hitching service unit, and Huang Jinhong, vice president of customer service business.
Didi said in the statement that the company is facing increasingly more serious challenges in security management and disposal as its service volume expanded day by day. Especially, it still has deficiency in potential risk recognition, process system design and responding punctuality and sincerely accepts the criticism from the public and regulators. 
The tragedy took place only three months after an air hostess was also murdered by a Didi driver. Both incidents spark a wide range of public rage and distrust on the safety of car-hailing services and the platform.
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