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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

#141

Post by shimon_e »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #29
johnloeber wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber's China business was losing money before (I believe to the tune of about $1bn/year), and it looked like they weren't going to get a permanent hold in that market. Local competition was very strong. Consequently, I would conjecture that China was never a large part of Uber's valuation. Leaving it at slightly more than 10% of their valuation seems reasonably realistic to me. Keep in mind: * The major Chinese citie…

Ride sharing is a huge deal here. I use it daily, my wife more so, most of the people I know use it. Car ownership is low, but that created even more opportunity here. And it's not like there was a healthy volume of taxi/black car activity before, the apps have just made it way convenient and much nicer. This will be the biggest market for uber like services, if it isn't already. But it is also way cheaper here, so t…

Biggest volume and lowest prices.

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

#142

Post by aneesh »

menzoic wrote: post #132
yladiz wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's extremely unlikely that they'll IPO for anywhere near $100 billion, or even near their current valuation (for reference, the largest IPO in history is Alibaba with $25B). Their accounting practices most likely don't utilize GAAP, which is how they get around saying "we're profitable in the US", so I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually significantly losing money. Plus with the multitude of lawsuits agains…

> the largest IPO in history is Alibaba with $25B Facebook's IPO was much larger at $104B

Different metrics. Alibaba raised $25B. Facebook's market cap was around $104B (intraday) upon their IPO, but they only raised about $16B in the offering.

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

#143

Post by Eutow »

bogomipz wrote: post #96

I realize this is a complex deal with many nuances but do elements of all of this not sound a little bit like a ponzi scheme? At least outwardly? Didi which itself has lost billions dollars so far has agreed to invest a billion dollars into another company who has lost billions of dollars. I guess investors are that confident that Uber can not and will not fail?

Apple invests $1 billion in Didi. Didi invests $1 billion in Uber.

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

#144

Post by jpatokal »

snaky wrote: post #128
Bogdanovich wrote: post #126

From bbc.com: "The deal with Didi Chuxing comes just days after China agreed to provide a legal framework for taxi-ordering apps. Both Uber and Didi have welcomed the decision, having previously operated in a legal grey area in the country. While the apps are widely popular, they have undermined business for normal taxis and have been met with protests by cab drivers. The new rules will take effect on 1 November and…

Wait for suddenly and unexpectedly these regulations will be pulled off after the deal.

Why would Didi need to subsidize to below cost if they don't have Uber to compete against? They already have a 87% market share.

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

#145

Post by kesselvon »

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.

Hard to compete when the government interferes in favor of your competitor. Many western companies investing or competing in China don't realize how stacked the cards are against them. Either you're left with a very tiny share of the market, or your joint Chinese partners are going to plunder your IP and start undercutting your business.

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

#146

Post by shimon_e »

DavidWanjiru wrote: post #67

>chief executive of Uber wrote in a blogpost obtained by Bloomberg. You mean obtained it, like it isn't available to the general public or something? Did they let you make a copy or was it FYEO?

Available only on the exclusive internet.

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

#147

Post by msoad »

whack wrote: post #138

I really hope China adopts some kind of anti-trust regulation sometime soon. This trend of all competitors merging until only one monopolist is left standing, can't be good for their consumers, nor the economy.

heh! This is the result of the new policy Chinese government put in place that prohibits ride sharing companies from subsidizing rides to gain market share. It pretty much forced Uber to get out of China! I don't think Chinese government care about anti-trust as long as the monopoly company is from the gang that runs the country.

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

#148

Post by idra »

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…

So true. "Every time I go in the subway, I die a little bit inside" - a friend of mine used to say this when we lived in Beijing.

Can't remember if I've even been to the Shanghai subway, but the feeling inside in Guangzhou and Shenzhen are like Beijing, but even more foul-smelling. Traffic is also really really bad though, so at least on the subway you know it's going to take an hour instead of the "30 minutes or 3 hours?" estimate you get by car.

Now Hong Kong is completely different... for now.

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

#149

Post by kuschku »

superuser2 wrote: post #136
kuschku wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not anymore once they have to get insurances for their drivers in the markets they operate in.

They did that years ago: https://newsroom.uber.com/insurance-for-uberx-with-rideshari...

Only during "on trip" and "on route" is the insurance enough.

As soon as the driver opens the app, they have to provide the same full insurance, for every driver.

Because in that moment the private insurance stops being valid.

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

#150

Post by DanBC »

superuser2 wrote: post #136
kuschku wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not anymore once they have to get insurances for their drivers in the markets they operate in.

They did that years ago: https://newsroom.uber.com/insurance-for-uberx-with-rideshari...

As far as I know that's only the US.
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