The New Kids on the Street: Ride-Hailing Platform Drivers Competing with Informal Motorbike-Taxi Livelihoods in Hanoi, Vietnam

Ride-hailing platforms herald new labor and mobility practices that are disrupting established modes of urban transportation around the world. In the Global South, these disruptions are often meeting strong resistance from the informal transport sector. This is occurring in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital city, where informal motorbike taxis (xe ôm) have provided an essential means for residents to traverse the city for decades, while also creating viable livelihoods for thousands of drivers. Since 2015, the introduction of digitally mediated motorbike taxis, including ride-hailing “unicorns” Uber and Grab, has redefined this two-wheeled livelihood, challenging xe ôm drivers already plying the city’s streets. Drawing on over 130 interviews with ride-hailing platforms and informal xe ôm drivers in Hanoi, we ground our work in conceptual debates concerning urban livelihoods, mobility (in)justice, and frictions. We analyze the daily frictions and conflicts emerging as “tech” ride-hailing and “traditional” xe ôm drivers compete for socio-spatial space and the rights to sustain their mobile livelihoods. We find that the advent of ride-sharing platforms has resulted in new inequalities and exclusions along specific intersectional lines. Concurrently, both groups of motorbike-taxi drivers have been left to fend for themselves, highlighting the inertia of transport authorities and ride-hailing platform executives in Hanoi.