多元化产品和服务的网约车平台运营机制研究

Diversified products and services are provided by the ride-sourcing platform to satisfy customers' different types of needs. By assuming a ride-sourcing platform that operates the express and limousine services, we analyze customers' travel mode choice and drivers' service mode choice. By treating the variables of the platform's bilateral pricing and the product division between express and limousine services, we set the profit maximization as the platform's objective. Upon that, we analyze the properties of the optimization problem and find that the complex multivariate problem can be reduced to a bivariate problem with improved efficiency. It is found that:1) The bilateral pricing makes no limousine driver provide express service; 2) no excess passenger demand or extra driver supply; 3) the demand for limousine service is not zero, and there are always some passengers who choose other modes of transportation. Numerical experiments verified the theoretical analysis, and further showed that passenger participation rate and driver utilization rate behave opposite changes. This paper presents a methodological study on the diversified product operation of a class of on-demand service platforms, represented by the ride-sourcing platform. Besides that, it gives a modeling idea and solution framework for the problem. In addition, this paper is enough to attract the attention of the operators of on-demand ride service platforms.