Apple invests $1b in China ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing
Apple has made $1 billion strategic investment in Didi Chuxing, China's leading ride-hailing app operator.
This represents the single largest investment Didi has ever received, the company said in a statement posted on its official Weibo microblog. Apple will help Didi build its data-driven ride-sharing platform, alongside other strategic investors including Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group.
Didi is in the process of raising a new round reportedly as large as $2.5 billion. It confirmed in the statement that several well-known financial and industry investors have committed capital.
Apple's CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with Reuters that the company wants to learn more about certain segments of the China market through its strategic investment in Didi. "Of course, we believe it will deliver a strong return for our invested capital over time as well," he said.
Didi Chuxing, formerly known as Didi Kuaidi, is the result of a merger last year between rival ride-hailing apps Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache. Primarily a digital intermediary for taxi companies, the combined entity has quickly expanded into car-pooling, vehicle rental, designated driver services, and private car booking that includes rides in Audi and Mercedes-Benz vehicles for high-end customers.
Didi operates in 400 Chinese cities and works with more than 14 million Chinese car owners. It completes more than 11 million rides a day, with more than 87% of the domestic market for private car-hailing.
The company has raised several rounds of funding. The $3 billion round it closed last September was at the time the largest ever private financing for an internet start-up. Earlier this year, Didi raised an undisclosed sum from China Merchants Bank.
The company is in direct competition with US-based Uber, which also offers a variety of services in China. In January, Uber said its China unit raised a new round that valued the company at $7 billion. The parent company was most recently valued at approximately $62.5 billion.
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