Chinese taxi drivers reside at the intersection of a growing on-demand platform economy and the established employment structure of the taxi industry. Based on a nationwide data survey, I argue that the technological power of Chinese ride-sharing platform Didi took shape by reinforcing inequalities facing informally employed taxi drivers prior to the emergence of ride-hailing apps. Drivers, far from being passive app users, have counteracted the changes in the work environment that resulted from platformisation in new and evolving ways, from strikes to algorithmic activism. I suggest that online platforms are contested spaces where digital labor politics penetrate beyond the purported algorithmic power of the technology. My paper enriches researches on on-demand labor by deconstructing the distinction between taxi drivers and private gig drivers and by pointing to the unfolding new grounds for digital labor activism. Didi's ascendency to monopoly status in the ride-hailing market in China represents a notable trend for platform capitalism – namely, that it thrives on turning informal laborers into platform laborers in developing countries. Chinese taxi drivers' labor and activism challenge the broad claim that digital platforms alone have disrupted the taxi industry or that algorithms dictate drivers' work.