The Optimal Pricing Strategy Of Online Car-hailing Platform Based On The Cost Difference Of Drivers

With the rapid development of ride-hailing platforms,more and more scholars are engaged in the research of car-hailing platforms.Most scholars assume that the cost of drivers is homogeneous,but in our study,we consider the heterogeneity of the cost of drivers and study the impact of the difference of opportunity cost and participation cost of drivers on the pricing strategy of the platform.This paper studies two different types of pricing strategies.They are the single pricing strategy without considering the uncertainty of consumer demand and the surging pricing strategy with considering the uncertainty of consumer demand.Based on utility theory,equilibrium theory and optimization theory,this paper establishes demand function,supply function and platform profit model.For the single pricing strategy,we consider two pricing contracts,namely the fixed commission contract and the proportional commission contract;for the surging pricing strategy,we consider three pricing contracts,namely,dynamic price contract,dynamic compensation contract and dynamic proportional commission contract.At the same time,for each kind of pricing contract,we consider the demand situation of oversupply and undersupply.We calculate the optimal solution of each situation for the two supply and demand conditions of each pricing contract,and then compare the optimal solution of the two supply and demand conditions to obtain the optimal price,optimal salary and optimal profit under this contract.Then,for the two contracts of the single pricing strategy,we take the maximum profit of the platform as the goal,and compare the results of these two contracts,so as to obtain the optimal pricing strategy that the platform should choose under different conditions.For the three contracts of surging pricing strategy,we use the method of numerical analysis to compare and analyze their performance in the three aspects of platform profit,consumer surplus and driver surplus.We find that the dynamic proportional commission contract has the best comprehensive performance among the three contracts.In addition,we carry out a sensitivity analysis and find the influence of relevant parameters on drivers' income,optimal price,optimal salary and platform optimal profit of each contract.