A company always looking towards the future, Apple has now invested $1 billion in the ride sharing service Didi. Didi is a Chinese competitor to Uber, who is also looking to penetrate the Chinese market. Apple joins Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. as key investors in the ride sharing service.
As of now, Didi reportedly is used for 11 million rides per day, and boasts over 300 million users. It is currently far ahead of Uber in terms of success in China, a fact that Uber has been trying to rectify. Didi could raise over $2 billion in funding, with Apple’s investment of $1 billion being the biggest single investment.
As a service still trying to gain a foothold, Didi is not yet making a profit, but company leaders are saying that will soon change. Didi is used in 400 cities in China, and employs more than 14 million car owners. Didi has also joined a coalition with other international ride sharing services such as Lyft, Ola from India, and Grab from Southeast Asia, all in efforts to combat Uber’s Akira-like global expansion.
China is still a growing market, and with roads so clogged with cars, you can be sure a ride sharing service will be used quite a bit by the population. At this time Didi seems to be staving off the advance of the juggernaut that is Uber, but time will tell how that plays out. Uber is the giant in this industry, and it firmly has its eyes set on taking China away from Didi.
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