How People View and Respond to Special Events in Shared Mobility: Case Study of Two Didi Safety Incidents via Sina Weibo

The shared mobility market in China has encountered a crisis since two severe Didi’s safety incidents happened within 3 months in 2018. Multiple stakeholders including service providers, government authorities, and the public were involved to publish announcements and share opinions through Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter. This study aims at comparing public opinions and reactions in these two typical special events, so as to understand customers’ needs and the impacts of shared mobility on users, service providers, and market regulators. An improved Weibo mining framework was used to discover concern of focus, to cluster topics that receive high public attention, and to explore key factors that influence people’s attitudes. The case study reveals the changing public’s perceptions in shared mobility during the process of online participation and communication, and suggestions are provided to distinguish the multiple stakeholders’ roles and thus to realize the co-governance in the mobility market.