Friday, May 13, 2016

Apple invests in Chinese rival Uber – RTP

| Economy

Didi ChuXing, supported the Chinese giant Alibaba internet (e-commerce) and Tencent (social and gaming networks) says dominate 99 percent of China’s reserves market online taxi and more than 85 percent of the private vehicle with chauffeur reserves market, reveals the France Presse. Didi has about 300 million users and an average of 11 million daily trips. It operates in 400 cities.

The investment of the US company is the single most important investment ever received by Didi.

The Uber has struggled to enter the Chinese market since 2014. The American company recently received the support of Baidu, another Chinese giant web. recently indicated that loses one billion dollars a year in China, but aims to operate in a hundred Chinese cities this year, ie more than double the number of cities covered.

Tim Cook, Apple’s highlights in a statement that “Didi is the innovation that is happening” in the financial sector in China. “We are extremely impressed by the deal that created the excellent leadership and look forward to supporting them as they grow,” notes Cook.

For the founder of Didi, Cheng Wei, this “is a great encouragement.” The company’s president, Jean Liu, ensures that “we are confident that we will both benefit from the products, technology and many other aspects”, quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

The head of Apple, quoted by Chinese news agency, said that the decision for this investment came from a number of strategic reasons, “including the opportunity to gain an advantage on certain market segments” local . “We will achieve robust results,” said Tim Cook.

The Chinese region, which includes China, Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan, is the second largest market for Apple after the United States. This business is therefore a chance to better understand the Chinese market, a key area for business.

The paths of this collaboration were not, however, specified – not by Apple or by Didi. Analysts advance several hypotheses, such as the desire for Apple to build an autonomous electric vehicle project that would benefit from such a complete database as Didi in the transport field. Another possibility relates to the possibility of developing cooperation area.
Analysts still put emphasis on the fact that
 unusual Apple investing in companies like Didi, betting
 usually in the purchase of “start-up’s” smaller.


 Furthermore, this business can encourage Apple Pay service of online payments, which was launched in China in February. This despite the dominant companies in this field are those who also support Didi.

On the other hand, recent results from US giant revealed sales breaks and have made increasing pressure to find other markets to which to expand, while its main business of mobile phones slows. Moreover, the accounts revealed pointed to China as a “weak point”, says the BBC. In parallel, Chinese regulators have placed barriers to other online business from Apple, in the area of ​​books and movies.

According to Bloomberg, Didi, seen as the most powerful rival Uber recently formed an “international coalition” with companies in the uS, India and southeast Asia to fight the Uber.

the Chinese government should approve this month legal reforms aimed at “professionalizing” mobile services, after more than a year friction between conventional taxis and the drivers of those applications.

c / agencies

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