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 The partnership, which marks Uber's ambitions to break into China's
huge tourism industry, includes an array of transportation services
to and from airports and for HNA flights, as well as online
financing for the automotive sector.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said in Beijing he envisions a system where
customers can seamlessly move from traveling within a city to
between and outside cities, built on a global series of
partnerships.
Uber's partnership with HNA Group comes as it and rival Didi Kuaidi
vie to forge ties with influential Chinese companies with
long-established ties to government as they try to avoid aggravating
regulators in China's still developing ride-hailing business.
Ride hailing in China, like in other countries, can either be
technically illegal or operate in a gray area, depending on the
location and kind of service.
Uber's battle with Didi Kuaidi has proven especially costly. Both
companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in a bid to
attract and keep users. Now, the rivalry is looking to extend
further as Uber lures tourists and inter-city travelers.
At a press conference on Monday, Kalanick and HNA President Tan
Xiangdong said they see the partnership as symbiotic, plugging each
other's gaps in travel.
To date, Uber has invested 6.3 billion yuan ($958.61 million) in
China, with the country Uber's "largest market globally and a key
strategic hub", Kalanick said.
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The U.S. ride-hailing firm's China unit recently closed a funding
round, before which it had a valuation of $7 billion. Investors from
China were more than he could name, Kalanick said, declining to
disclose further details about the latest fundraising.
In response to a question about Uber's high cash-burn rate in China,
Kalanick said the company is investing profits from cities around
the world into China.
"We are investing in China for the long term," he said.
(Reporting by Paul Carsten, Additional reporting by Fang Yan;
Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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