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Weibo said in the filing on Tuesday that it had agreed to invest
in the two Chinese companies in the latest round of financing
through its Cayman Islands holding company Xiaoju Kuaizhi Inc, a
move that will help lure in riders and fend off rivals like U.S.
firm Uber Technologies Inc.
Didi Taxi and Kuaidi Taxi, the two leading taxi apps in China,
merged in February to create Didi Kuaidi -- the world's largest
smartphone-based transport service which was valued at roughly
$6 billion according to a person familiar with the deal.
A spokesman for Weibo said the investment went into the merged
company. Didi Kuaidi declined to comment.
Weibo, controlled by Web portal company Sina Corp, has become
China's water cooler, where nearly 600 million Internet users
discuss everything from Korean soap operas to China's politics.
Like many other Internet firms, the company -- with around 200
million monthly active users -- has to operate in a heavily
censored and tightly controlled media environment in China.
Didi Kuaidi operates in 360 cities in China and has 1.35 million
drivers. Its premium car service is available in 61 cities with
400,000 drivers. Daily calls for taxis have hit 4 million per
day, while premium cars are ordered 1.5 million times a day.
(Reporting By Yimou Lee; Editing by James Pomfret and Prateek
Chatterjee)
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