Today I saw a piece of data, and suddenly felt a bit cold inside.

The number of licensed online ride-hailing drivers nationwide has reached 7480000.

Meanwhile, the order growth rate during the same period is only 38%.

What does this mean?

It means a lifeboat already full of people is still being stuffed with more.

Many people think online ride-hailing is the "lifeline for the unemployed,"

but the reality is more like— a collective downward competition.

In 2021, it was common for newcomers to earn twenty thousand a month.

What about now?

If one can earn five thousand, that's already considered fortunate.

Frontline drivers say they now have to drive over 12 hours a day,

just to barely make ends meet.

Even more exaggerated is that the proportion of vehicles that receive less than 5 orders in a year has already exceeded 36%.

This is not industry contraction,

this is despair spreading.

Why are so many people still squeezing in?

Because there are no choices.

Manufacturing is sluggish, the construction industry is at a standstill, and there is a wave of restaurant closures,

many middle-aged people, burdened with mortgages, start driving for ride-hailing the day after losing their jobs.

Low entry barriers, daily payments, no exposure to wind and sun—

sounds beautiful.

But it is precisely these "advantages,"

that have become the harshest traps:

Low entry barriers = endless competition

Freedom = no security

Daily payments = instability

Social security coverage is less than 10%,

and less than 30% are truly working full-time.

What's darker is the platform logic:

Algorithms control order distribution,

commissions are getting higher and higher,

customer unit prices are getting lower and lower,

fuel costs, insurance, maintenance, all rely on drivers to bear.

Monthly revenue over ten thousand?

What you take home may only be 60%.

This industry is like a sponge that absorbs water,

in a short time, it has indeed taken in a large number of unemployed people.

But now, the sponge is already full.

Continuing to squeeze in,

will only make it harder for everyone.

Online ride-hailing is not the future,

just the last buffer pool.

If there are still other paths—

don't treat this as the endpoint.

Awakening is the best investment.