Denno Kotsu and DiDi Team Up for DS Connect “1UI”

Denno Kotsu Co., Ltd. is pleased to announce that the “DiDi” app provided by DiDi Mobility Japan Corporation will begin “1UI” integration between Denno Kotsu’s external service connection system, “DS Connect,” from April 2026.

This collaboration will link the DiDi app with “DS,” a cloud-based taxi dispatch system provided by Denno Kotsu, enabling taxi operators to centrally manage dispatch requests via telephone and the DiDi app on a single screen on a single in-car tablet.

This system will also be the first in the industry to centrally manage ride-hailing requests from three major ride-hailing apps, including DiDi, Uber, and S.RIDE.

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Inbound demand for visits to Japan is expanding, and according to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the number of foreign visitors to Japan in 2025 is expected to reach a record high of approximately 42.68 million. Furthermore, the total amount of spending by foreign visitors to Japan in 2025 is expected to reach a record high of approximately 9.5 trillion yen, with per capita travel expenditure (all purposes) also announced to be 229,000 yen.

In this environment, a key management theme for taxi operators is “how to capture a wide range of demand, both domestic and international.” In particular, ride-hailing apps, which have a global user base, provide a comfortable means of transportation for visitors to Japan using an app they are familiar with, and also serve as a service that improves the convenience of daily use for domestic users, providing a path to calling a taxi from both domestic and international sources, leading to increased opportunities to capture demand.

On the other hand, as new ride-hailing apps are introduced, the number of devices, screens, and operations required for each app increases, and concerns about the workload and safety of drivers become hurdles to their adoption.

This collaboration with DiDi, which has 11 million downloads in Japan and is used by 590 million people in 15 countries around the world, aims to expand customer acquisition channels while responding to a wide range of transportation needs both domestically and internationally, without increasing the burden on the field or safety issues.

SOURCE: PRTimes