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Didi
Kuaidi, which controls 80 percent of China's taxi-hailing market
and whose parent company is Xiaoju Kuaizhi, last week started to
raise at least $1.5 billion from investors, the letter said. The
fundraising amount could rise to $2 billion due to strong
demand, in a deal that values the company at $15 billion, people
familiar with the matter told Reuters.
That valuation is lower than the at least $40 billion valuation
for Uber, which in its June 12 letter to shareholders said it
plans to invest more than $1 billion in China to rev up growth
in the world's second largest economy.
"In overall rides, we now have 10x the volume of our closest
competitor in China and at least 3x its global volume," Didi
Kuaidi said in its letter to shareholders, which was obtained by
Reuters. "With advantages in scale and operational efficiency,
we can provide more ride orders to drivers than competitors."
Didi Kuaidi is backed by China's two largest Internet companies,
Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd. Uber is
backed by their smaller rival Baidu Inc.
Didi Kuaidi said it has three million private car requests a
day. By comparison, Uber, which focuses on private car use, said
in its letter to shareholders that it was completing one million
trips per day.
Didi Kuaidi expects the annualized amount of money spent on its
platforms to be $12 billion by the end of the year, and aims to
serve 30 million passengers and 10 million drivers a day within
three years, the letter said.
Local government officials have raided the offices of both Didi
Kuaidi and Uber and also cracked down on unlicensed drivers
using their private cars via the apps. In its letter, Didi
Kuaidi, like Uber, also pledged to work with the government to
resolve its problems.
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)
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