Pricing Strategies of Ride-Hailing Platforms Considering Travelers’ Low-Carbon Preferences

An online taxi platform service model with the coexistence of express car service and online carpooling service was constructed. And in two conditions of considering and not considering travelers’ low-carbon preference and platform subsidy, the optimal pricing and optimal expected profit of the online taxi platform were solved by using optimization theory and function extreme value. The effects of platform service quality, the number of carpoolers, travelers’ low-carbon preference and platform subsidy on the price and expected profit of the online taxi platform was analyzed by using MATLAB numerical simulation. The results show that the expected profit and price of the online carpooling platform are positively correlated with the quality of service, but the expected profit of the platform tends to level off when the quality of service increases to a certain threshold; the number of carpoolers is positively correlated with the price of travel, but the expected profit of the online carpooling platform decreases with the increase of the number of carpoolers and then increases slowly when the low-carbon preference of travelers is not taken into account; the low-carbon preference of travelers and the platform subsidy are positively correlated with the expected profit and price of the platform.