INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Didi Chuxing, China dominant ride-hailing company, is continuing its international expansion after it announced plans to launch in
Australia this month.
The company — which bought Uber China business in 2016 — said it will begin serving customers in Melbourne from
June 25 following a month-long trial period in Geelong, a neighboring city that 75km away
The business will be run by a Didi subsidiary in Australia and it plans to offer &a series of welcome packages to both drivers and riders&
— aka discounts and promotions, no doubt
It began signing up drivers on June 1, the company added.
The Australia launch will again put Didi in direct competition with Uber, but
that is becoming increasingly common, and also Ola and Didi which both count Didi as an investor — more on that below
This movefollows forays into Taiwan, Mexico and Brazil this year as Didi has finally expanded beyond its China-based empire.
Didi raised $4
billion in December to develop AI, general technology andto fund international expansion and it has taken a variety of routes to doing the
This Australia launch is organic, with Didi developing its own team, while in Taiwan it has used a franchise model and it went into Brazil
via acquisition, snapping up local Uber-rival 99 at a valuation of $1 billion.
It is also set to enter Japan where it has teamed up with
investor SoftBank on a joint-venture.
&In 2018, Didi will continue to cultivate markets in Latin America, Australia and Japan
We are confident a combination of world-class transportation AI technology and deep local expertise will bring a better experience to
overseas markets,& the company added in a statement.
This international expansion has also brought a new level of confusion since Didi has
cultivated relationships with other ride-hailing companies across the world while also expanding its own presence internationally.
The Uber
deal brought with it a stock swap — turning Didi and Uber from competitors into stakeholders — and the Chinese company has also backed
Grab in Southeast Asia, Lyft in the U.S., Ola in India, Careem in the Middle East and — more recently — Taxify, which is primarily
focused on Europe and Africa.
In the case of Australia, Didi will come up against Uber, Ola — present in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney via
an expansion made earlier this year— and Taxify, too
Uber vs Didi is to be expected — that a complicated relationship — but in taking on Ola (so soon after it came to Australia), Didi is
competing directly with a company that it funded via an investment deal for the first time.
That might be a small insight into Didi
Unlike Grab, which has seen Didi follow-on its investments, the Chinese firm sat out Ola most recent fundraising last year despite making an
investment in the company back in 2015.
&The ride-hailing industry is still a young business, and the potential for growth is substantial
Competition exists in ride-hailing, like in any flourishing industry
But it leads to better products and services, which ultimately benefits users,& Didi told TechCrunch in a statement when asked about its new
rivalry with Ola and Taxify.
Ola declined to comment
Taxify did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The move into Australia comes at a time when Didi is under intense pressure
following the death of a passenger uses its ‘Hitch& service last month.
The company suspended the Hitch service — which allows groups
people who are headed in the same direction together — and removed a number of features while limiting its operations to day-time only
This week, it said it would resume night-time rides but only for drivers picking up passengers of the same sex.
