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Uber to Sell China Business to Rival Didi After Losing Billions

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Re: Uber to Sell China Business to Rival Didi After Losing Billions

#61

Post by adventured »

ravivyas wrote: post #39
sethbannon wrote: post #18

Uber finally threw up the white flag in its fight against Didi in China. I wonder how big of a dent this puts in Uber's sheen of invincibility in other markets. Will investors be braver backing other regional competitors like Ola in India and Lyft in the US?

China is a whole different market. Nothing can be extrapolated from China. Amazon lost in China, but is doing well in India.

And of course infamously Google and Facebook dominate most of the planet, but can't compete in China (and Baidu can't manage to do much outside of China).

Re: Uber to Sell China Business to Rival Didi After Losing Billions

#63

Post by adventured »

ffumarola wrote: post #35
curiousDog wrote: post #11

Next up, gobbling up Lyft. Looks like they really want to be the monopoly at IPO time. At this rate, they'll probably IPO at more than $100 billion. Sigh, should've interviewed with them last year, haha

It seems like you're reading this as them gobbling up Didi, instead of admitting defeat?

It's not much of a defeat. They get billions of dollars from a market they were never going to be allowed to dominate to begin with. The only outcome from day one for Uber was being forced out of China, no different than the problems Amazon / Google / Facebook / eBay have all run into in being prevented from competing normally in that market as they do in the rest of the world.

Re: Uber to Sell China Business to Rival Didi After Losing Billions

#64

Post by nnd »

cstejerean wrote: post #56
mabcat wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't fly to Sydney then! I don't know what devil-deal was done, but the app won't allow you to summon an UberX inside the airport boundaries.

Can you get an uber black? UberX is not allowed to pick up at airports in some markets, but I'll settle for Uber black over having to deal with taxis.

There are a lot of cities where any Uber is available outside of airport only.

Re: Uber to Sell China Business to Rival Didi After Losing Billions

#66

Post by erikpukinskis »

> “Uber and Didi Chuxing are investing billions of dollars in China and both companies have yet to turn a profit there. Getting to profitability is the only way to build a sustainable business that can best serve Chinese riders, drivers and cities over the long term.”

Hm. This makes me wonder if their strategy for doing that is price fixing. The merger lets them do that legally.

Are there any other serious players in the market in China?

Re: Uber to Sell China Business to Rival Didi After Losing Billions

#68

Post by a_small_island »

JoachimSchipper wrote: post #60
techolic wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly, Uber doesn't own all of the $7bn.

7bn is 20% of the 35bn.

Uber does not own all 20%, from the article:

"Investors in Uber China, an entity owned by San Francisco-based Uber, Baidu Inc. and others, will receive a 20 percent stake in Didi, the people said. "

Re: Uber to Sell China Business to Rival Didi After Losing Billions

#69

Post by rahimnathwani »

theseadroid wrote: post #44
rahimnathwani wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The major Chinese cities generally have very developed and efficient systems of mass public transit, reducing demand for rideshares (and cars in general)" This depends on your frame of reference. If you're comparing with SF, sure. If you're comparing with London or New York, less so. In London, the underground is faster than private car for many (most?) daytime journeys. In Beijing and Shanghai, a private car is alm…

Lived in Beijing for 2 decades. I think in Beijing and Shanghai, a private car is almost always slower than their subway systems. Beijing subway network has 18 lines, 334 stations and 554 km (344 mi) of track in operation and is the second longest subway system in the world after the Shanghai Metro (588 kilometres). Beijing subway also has extensive expansion plans call for 1,050 km (650 mi) of track by 2020. https:/…

A private car driving from one subway station to another subway station _on the same line_ will generally be slower than a train. But most journeys require a change of lines, and most journeys require walking at either end.

But aside from that, perhaps we're just traveling to/from different places, and hence have a different set of experiences. Here are some specific examples of journeys that are almost always faster for me by car than by public transport.

- Dongzhimen area (5 mins walk from the station) to Financial Street (10 mins walk from Fuchengmen station)

- Jiaodaokou to Tuspark in Wudaokou

- Jiaodaokou to Xi'erqi

- Anywhere to Sanlitun (except on Fri/Sat night)

Re: Uber to Sell China Business to Rival Didi After Losing Billions

#70

Post by perlwle »

snaky wrote: post #50

Jean Liu, the president of Didi, is the daughter of Chinese businessman and Lenovo founder Liu Chuanzhi, and the granddaughter of Liu Gushu, a senior executive banker at the Bank of China. Travis Kalanick is not.

Another fun fact: Jen Liu, Uber’s China head of strategy, is the niece of Lenovo founder Liu Chuanzhi.
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