Chinese Uber rival Didi Chuxing raises another $600m – one month after it got $1bn from Apple
Chinese Uber rival Didi Chuxing has just unveiled another $600m (£423m) round of funding – exactly one month after Apple ploughed $1bn into it.
China Life made an equity investment of $300m and a long-term debt investment of two billion yuan, about $305m.
Didi Chuxing said the two companies had committed to a partnership on internet-powered financial innovation and other initiatives – including developing "innovative business models for insurance, comprehensive financial services, market development and corporate mobility solutions", as well as collaborating on investment opportunities in mobile transportation.
The investment adds China Life to an impressive list of investors, including Tencent, Alibaba, China Investment Corporation – and, of course, Apple.
You can see why they're keen: Didi Chuxing has 15m drivers on its platform, providing services to 300m users in China, providing about 14m rides per day. The four-year-old company reckons it has an 82.5 per cent market share in the world's private car-hailing sector.
Uber boss Travis Kallanick, meanwhile, has described Didi Chuxing as a "fierce competitor", admitting Uber loses more than $1bn a year in China thanks to it.
At an event in Vancouver, Kallanick heavily criticised it, saying: "We have a fierce competitor that’s unprofitable in every city they exist in, but they’re buying up market share.
"I wish the world wasn’t that way. I prefer building rather than fundraising. But if I don’t participate in the fundraising bonanza, I’ll get squeezed out by others buying market share."