Uber has taken some big checks from Chinese investors, CEO Travis Kalanick is upping his game, saying that he now wants Uber in 100 Chinese cities over the next year.
“When we started this year, we were about one percent market share. Today, nine months later, we’re looking at about 30 to 35 percent market share”, Kalanick said in the speech. This speech was made only one day after Uber had revealed that it has raised an additional $1.2 billion, with Baidu as one of the investors. Also, recently leaked documents showed that Uber had taken investments from two other companies in China: the state-owned China Life Insurance Co. and China Taiping Insurance. Uber is going to really have to step up its game, however, if it wants to compete with homegrown service Didi Kuaidi in China. The latter recently raised a $2 billion round of funding, lead by Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. and Capital International Private Equity Funds, with Hillhouse Capital Management and Coatue Management also participating. Didi and Kuaidi are two separate apps which merged this year to take on competition from Uber.
Going up against that kind of dominance will be challenge for Uber. Kalanick said that he expected new regulations later this year, which will govern ride-hailing services in China, and which will benefit Uber……
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Image: Uber.com