Apple Invests in Didi to Enter the Cab Industry
The American smartphone maker backs Didi with an investment of a billion dollar to lead the taxi industry
Apple has invested a sum of a billion dollars in Didi Kuadi. The announcement of the investment was done on 13th May 2016 is the single biggest Beijing based taxi company has received, providing it a huge boost in the ferocious battle to turn into the means employed by the Chinese customers to move around.
Yes, the transporter with its valuation of $62 billion is valued more than Didi, which has a valuation of $25 billion- and Travis’ organization, run its operations in a larger number of states at a global level. But China is the most fertile on-demand transportation market, a country with 750 million potential passengers and a large runway for expansion as possibly millions of Chinese people become a part of the middle class in the upcoming decade.
Even with the US taxi service provider taking the second spot in the country, 5 of its 10 leading cities by passenger volume are inside the nation. In the meantime, Didi stated it was running its operations in over 400 cities till January, and it has grabbed 87% of the private cab market, revealed analysts. The smartphone maker stated the funds would be invested to help Didi further develop its ride hailing platform, which already manages 11 million rides on a daily basis for a user base of 300 million.
CEO of Apple Tim Cook stated “Didi exemplifies the innovation taking place in the iOS developer community in China, We are extremely impressed by the business they’ve built and their excellent leadership team, and we look forward to supporting them as they grow.”
The invested funds also underpin the efforts by the American consumer electronics manufacturer to establish its stronger foothold in its biggest market outside US. Crucially, the iPhone company joins 2 huge China based internet companies, Tencent as well as Alibaba, in supporting Didi- a partnership that the Cupertino based organization might be believing is strategically logical, particularly as the market for Chinese smartphones - as well as the market for smartphones on the whole- keeps slowing down.
The partnership boosts the theory that the tech product manufacturer might be making efforts to rapidly extend into other companies, especially the much-ballyhooed Apple Car. And through a sum of $1 billion sounds such a huge amount of funds, it is lower than 0.5% of the $233 billion cash hoard of Apple.
The agreement also attains Apple some collaborates in other regions of the globe. It is worth noting, is part of an international ride-sharing coalition that includes Lyft, Grab as well as Ola. As it is faced increasing doubts from shareholders regarding its core business strength, the organization appears to be stating it does not have to restrict its plans to delivering devices alone.
