Apple Invests on the Biggest Car-Hailing Company in China

18Jun2016

Apple Invests on the Biggest Car Hailing Company in China

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A surprise partnership between DidiChuxing (In Chinese: 滴滴公司), the biggest car-hailing company in China, and Apple was announced at the beginning of the month, as Apple made one of their biggest outside investments with 1 billion USD. It is an unusual investment, as the firm tends to buy companies outright rather than investing in them.

Apple’s intention is to leverage this emerging market, that is both critical and controversial for the firm. Moreover, this partnership will help the multinational tech company drag its development plans for the self-driving electric car. On a larger scale, it is also a bid in order to better understand the Chinese field, where the internet and mobile technology market are already booming.

Didi Chuxing: the Biggest Car Hailing Company in China

DidiChuxing is a company that has been created by the merger of two different companies, DidiDache and DidiKuaidi, that both started as apps for hailing cabs. The company has now integrated the private car hailing service too. Furthermore, it offers today a wide range of services through its Smartphone app, including taxis, premium cars, and carpooling. With over 300 million users across the country, China’s biggest car-hailing service is leading the market by a considerable distance and has by far outpaced its main rival in the mainland, Uber. Uber’s CEO recently revealed that the company, which is already a market leader in many other countries, is using its profits from elsewhere to sustainably support expenditure in mainland China. While Uber has sufficient finance and big name backers in the Chinese market, such as the state-owned China Life Insurance, Didi also has a huge army of existing backers andthe advantage of local status. Indeed, aside from Apple’s investment, DidiChuxing also counts Tencent, Alibaba, and China Merchants Bank among its investors, allowing him the leading position in the country.