The ambitions of Didi Kuaidi, Uber's Chinese rival, gofar beyond taxi-hailing
作為Uber的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手,滴滴快的不再只限于召喚出租車。
FOREIGN internet giants often struggle in China. Facebook, Twitter and Google are largelyirrelevant on the mainland. Uber, an American car-hailing app that is conquering marketseverywhere else, is also finding China hard to crack. But unlike those other tech titans, the taxidisrupter is not being frozen out by unfair Chinese regulations favouring local firms. Uber'sbiggest problem is that it has encountered a world-class local upstart.
Didi Kuaidi was forged last year by the merger of rival taxi-hailing apps controlled by Alibabaand Tencent, two Chinese internet giants. It now dominates China's online market for personaltransport. Last year it arranged 1.4 billion rides in China, more than Uber has done worldwidein its history. It has perhaps two-thirds of the market for private-car rides (the source of mostof its revenues) and provides a taxi-hailing service in several hundred cities. Uber, with a thirdof the market for private-car service, this week announced plans to expand to cover 55Chinese cities. Both have spent heavily on subsidies to lure drivers to sign up.
Unlike Uber, which in China focuses on private-car services, Didi lets users select a taxi, privatecar, shared car, shuttle van or bus to pick them up. During next month's Chinese New Yearmass migration, when millions of travellers will encounter sold-out flights and trains, Didi willhelp users share intercity rides at prices comparable to train fares.
It has also forged alliances with, and invested in, Uber's rivals elsewhere: GrabTaxi in South-East Asia, Ola in India and Lyft in America. Jean Liu, Didi's president and a former GoldmanSachs dealmaker, helped Didi raise $3 billion to take on Uber. Soon half of the global market willbe on her alliance's technology platform, Ms Liu says, which will help both Chinese peopletravelling abroad and foreigners visiting China.
But getting people from A to B is just the start of Didi's ambitions. It plans to offer a variety ofother services that make the most of its huge base of users and the trove of data it holds onthem. On January 26th the firm announced an agreement with China Merchants Bank (CMB). Agrowing number of Didi's drivers want to buy a new car, and many have a steady incomethanks to the app, but often lack formal credit. Didi and CMB will start offering car loans—firstto drivers, but in future perhaps to passengers as well.
Didi's app already lets passengers book test drives of new cars on behalf of several carmakers,including Mercedes and Audi. Some 1.4m customers have taken one of 92 models for a spinsince this service was launched in October.
Perhaps Didi's quirkiest new sideline is that of matchmaker. Hitch, its ride-sharing service, willsoon allow drivers and passengers to select each other based on their shared interests. Italready has a deal with LinkedIn, to let people join up their accounts on the two networks. Theintention of such initiatives is that white-collar workers, who often endure daily commutes ofan hour or two, will have more fruitful journeys during which business, friendship and maybeeven romance will develop.