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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

#111

Post by jacquesm »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #79
theseadroid wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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:/…

I've lived in Beijing for the last 9 years. I beat the subway in a taxi on my commute from work to home except during peak rush hour. I work and live on 4th ring, it is a straight shot on line 10 without a transfer (ideal subway shot, routes are identical). Couple that with the subway never having seats, being ultra crowded (say hello to your neighbor's BO), and often having long lines to even get in the station via…

What is a 'BO'?

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

#112

Post by neolefty »

chj wrote: post #83
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is doing quite well in China, we buy things from it often. They aren't #1, but they haven't failed and are probably even making some money.

Have you tried jd.com? cheaper and better return policy.

My experience was that Amazon is generally cheaper. But yes, JD's return policy is better, and they deliver faster.

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

#113

Post by eva1984 »

snaky wrote: post #72
perlwle wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Good old state-sponsored family business. It's called Chaebol (재벌) in Korea, Zaibatsu (財閥) in Japan, is there a name for it in modern China?

CaiFa(财阀) is a word in Chinese too, which I think might be borrowed from Japanese. But for more local version of this word, I would prefer "红顶商人"(red hat businessman), which is from Qing Dynasty, where statesman wears hat with red fur on top, implying the his relationship with government.

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

#114

Post by seanmcdirmid »

arkitaip wrote: post #100
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its even worse than that: Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, ... most of China's neighbors who are just getting into the internet now...are strictly Facebook/Google territory, Chinese internet companies can't even compete in their backyard.

Do they need to, though? The Chinese market is so unbelievably huge that expanding into these small neighboring countries might not be worth the effort.

Well, why go for a market of 6 billion (people not living in China) when you can go for 1.3 billion (people living in China)? If Facebook becomes popular around the world, and only China and North Korea have locked it out, what does that say about China?

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

#115

Post by seanmcdirmid »

jacquesm wrote: post #111
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've lived in Beijing for the last 9 years. I beat the subway in a taxi on my commute from work to home except during peak rush hour. I work and live on 4th ring, it is a straight shot on line 10 without a transfer (ideal subway shot, routes are identical). Couple that with the subway never having seats, being ultra crowded (say hello to your neighbor's BO), and often having long lines to even get in the station via…

What is a 'BO'?

Body odor.

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

#116

Post by [deleted] »

jacquesm wrote: post #111
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've lived in Beijing for the last 9 years. I beat the subway in a taxi on my commute from work to home except during peak rush hour. I work and live on 4th ring, it is a straight shot on line 10 without a transfer (ideal subway shot, routes are identical). Couple that with the subway never having seats, being ultra crowded (say hello to your neighbor's BO), and often having long lines to even get in the station via…

What is a 'BO'?

[deleted]

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

#117

Post by [deleted] »

jacquesm wrote: post #111
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've lived in Beijing for the last 9 years. I beat the subway in a taxi on my commute from work to home except during peak rush hour. I work and live on 4th ring, it is a straight shot on line 10 without a transfer (ideal subway shot, routes are identical). Couple that with the subway never having seats, being ultra crowded (say hello to your neighbor's BO), and often having long lines to even get in the station via…

What is a 'BO'?

[deleted]

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

#118

Post by yomly »

rahulgulati wrote: post #46
sudoscript wrote: post #3

I can't tell if this is a good deal for Uber investors or not. As I understand it, Uber will own a 20% share in the combined company. The combined company is valued at $35 billion, so Uber's share of the value will be $7 billion (actually less, since they also need to share it with Baidu which invested directly into Uber China too). $7 billion doesn't sound too bad as an exit. However, if Uber's China business is wor…

One of the factors for Rest of the world vs China gap could be the ticket size of a cab ride. A 5km Uber ride in India/China/SE-Asia costs $1.5 on an average, while in developed countries its $15 on an average (10X). So, I guess, it's value over volume for Uber and markets that are on fast-track to profitability. source - http://www.priceoftravel.com/6536/price-of-a-5-kilometer-ube...

Spot on - ubers in China were easily 70% cheaper for me (coming from the UK). I don't think the volumes were appropriately bigger.

Also seemed like Uber were going wild at the time - Easter weekend was totally free for all riders all weekend iirc.

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

#119

Post by yomly »

free2rhyme214 wrote: post #55
piyushpr134 wrote: post #4

Merge is such a cute word. "Uber lost China and had to sell to Didi" is more like it

The Chinese are cute. They win in their home country but nowhere else.

The Chinese probably think the same thing about the companies that are failing on their home turf...

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

#120

Post by eru »

azernik wrote: post #16
sudoscript wrote: post #3

I can't tell if this is a good deal for Uber investors or not. As I understand it, Uber will own a 20% share in the combined company. The combined company is valued at $35 billion, so Uber's share of the value will be $7 billion (actually less, since they also need to share it with Baidu which invested directly into Uber China too). $7 billion doesn't sound too bad as an exit. However, if Uber's China business is wor…

A general approximation in business is that the non-US market is 5-8x the US market. So if the world market is only 9x the China market, I'd consider that a very big deal.

Is that an approximation for US businesses?
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