It also noticed that middle-income people — as determined by ZIP code data — tended to order cabs more often just before market downturns.
WeChat, a Chinese messaging app, dwarfs most western products both in scale – it has around 700 million active accounts – and ambition: despite being first released only in January 2011 as a text/voice/photo-sharing app, it has expanded to provide functionality so that you can order cabs, buy film tickets, play games, check in for flights, pay bills … the list goes on and on.
In recent years, few mobile apps in China have captured as many stares as WeChat, Tencent's messaging app that's evolved into a one-stop platform allowing people to shop, order cabs, book hotels, and complete other daily tasks.
A generation that already orders cabs and music on screens needs no introduction to the joys of a cashless life.
Fully 14,000 London taxis have signed up with Hailo, an app for ordering cabs that was introduced to London in 2011.
While she was having dinner with friends, someone – or more than one person – in Mexico had apparently hacked into her Uber account and "went a bit crazy" ordering cabs at her expense.
It will be available on every smart phone from day one, and if you order a cab and Get Taxi doesn't have a driver in its network, it will call a competitor and book one for you.
"Tomorrow I will begin the conquest of the world," says Lewis's. "I- I'll go and order a cab at once," replies the children's uncle.
In theory, you can pick up a bike as easily as you would order a cab or a takeaway, then drop it off at the end of your journey, wherever that may be.
