DiDi (company)

Didi Taxi (Didi Dache) (June 2012 - February 2015)

After working for Alibaba for 8 years, Cheng Wei founded Didi Taxi. He wanted to create his own company, as he understood that taxis are very difficult to catch, especially at rush hour. Moreover, he himself had to be late, or even miss the planes only because of the inability to catch a taxi.

In June 2012, Orange Technology (小 桔 科技) and DiDi DaChe (嘀嘀 打 车, literally: “Didi Taxi”) were created - a taxi quick search application was launched. Later, the function of ordering a taxi for trips the next day was added to the application. The company was supported by Tencent in November 2012. Tencent provided $ 15 million. While Kuaidi taxis were supported by Alibaba, a rivalry arose between the two "giants." In 2014, Jean Liu (Liu Qing), a former Managing Director of Goldman Sachs Asia, joined the company as Chief Executive Officer. The following year, she became president of the company. An application for a mobile taxi platform was developed by the Chinese mobile application company Beijing Xiaoju Keji Co., Ltd.

Didi Kuaidi (February 2015 - September 2015)

Didi Kuaidi was the result of the merger of the two companies in February 2015 between the taxi companies Didi-taxi (with the support of the Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Limited) and Kuaidi-taxi with the support of the Alibaba Group. The protracted price war in an attempt to gain market share led to an increase in losses for both companies, despite the fact that Didi Taxi and Kuaidi Taxi attracted 700 and 600 billion from private investors to maintain their growth in the global market. According to the 2015 merger press release, Didi taxis and Kuaidi taxis work in parallel by separate management teams. The combined company was valued at $ 6 billion. However, it was unclear whether the merger could violate China's antitrust laws.

As of May 2015, Didi-taxi spent another 1 billion yuan ($ 161 million) on various promotions and advertising to strengthen its dominant position over startups such as Yidao Yongche (Chinese: 易 到 用车) and Uber (with the third the largest Chinese Internet company Baidu as an investor). For this purpose, additional functions were added, such as: rental of premium cars, hiring drivers and the use of special services for passengers with disabilities. Caixin said that in June 2015, the company's share of the car rental market was 80.2%. In July 2015, the company completed a $ 2 billion fundraising round, with the result that the company's cash reserves exceeded $ 3.5 billion. This is the largest single fundraising campaign in the world by a private company, as well as the largest fundraising round among Chinese mobile Internet companies. The new investors are Capital International Private Equity Fund and Ping An Ventures, part of Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd. Alibaba, Tencent, Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd and Coatue Management also participated in this fundraising round. By September 2015, the market share of private cars was 80%, and taxi - 99%.

In 2015, Didi Kuaidi invested in Grabtaxi, a taxi application in Southeast Asia. ^[2]

Didi Chuxing (since September 2015)

In September 2015, Didi Kuaidi was renamed Didi Chuxing. In December 2015, taxi drivers protested against Didi taxis and Kuaidi taxis; both companies were forced to close their offices in Luoyang. ^[3]

Since 2015, DiDi has invested in Grab, Lyft, Ola, Uber, 99, Taxify and Careem. ^[four]

Around the beginning of 2016, the company launched a fierce price war with Uber, an American competitor, which began operations in China in 2015. Competition with Uber China, which operated in 40 Chinese cities, led Uber CEO Travis Kalanik to claim that the company was losing more than $ 1 billion annually due to operations in China. This was confirmed by Chinese Uber officials in a Reuters email in February 2016.

In June 2016, DiDi closed a $ 4.5 billion fundraising round with investors, including Apple Inc., China Life Insurance Co., and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, and broke a new fundraising record for a private company. ^[five]

Competition with Uber

Uber entered the Chinese market in August 2013. The company lost about $ 2 billion while trying to compete with Didi and Kuaidi. Both Didi and Kuaidi, two local Chinese cycling apps, were estimated to control about 80% of the market. Since China is the largest market in the world, Uber tried to get here, and they invested a lot of money and resources to keep up with the DIdi taxi. ^[6]

On August 1, 2016, it was announced that DiDi acquired Uber China. This acquisition valued the company at $ 35 billion. Uber acquired a 5.89% stake in the merged company with a preference share, which corresponds to DiDi's 17.7% economic interest. In accordance with the terms of the transaction, Cheng Wei became a member of the Uber board, and Travis Kalanik took a seat on board DiDi. ^{[7] [8]}

2017 - Present

On March 28, 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank Group Corporation turned to Didi Chuxing Technology Co. that she invested $ 6 billion to help the company expand its self-service capabilities in automotive technology. On April 28, 2017, DiDi announced the closure of a new round of financing of more than $ 5.5 billion to support its global strategy and invest in artificial intelligence-based technologies, which increases the company's value of $ 50 billion. ^[9]

In December, Reuters reported that Didi raised $ 4 billion to globally market foreign markets and invest in technologies such as artificial intelligence, in a clear desire to challenge Uber. On July 24, 2017, DiDi invested $ 2 billion in Grab so that it could surpass Uber in Southeast Asia.

In June 2018, English appeared in the Chinese DiDi application. Also, new functions were added, such as a panic button, which allows you to call the police in one click if the taxi driver began to behave incorrectly. DiDi also included support for international plastic cards VISA and MasterCard when choosing a type of taxi payment, which greatly facilitates the use of taxis in China to foreigners.

DiDi is an application in which taxis, private cars and drivers can be hired using a smartphone. It is similar to apps like GrabTaxi in Southeast Asia.

It serves more than 450 million users in more than 400 Chinese cities. On the DiDi platform, 20 million trips were made on a daily basis in 2016. In total, 1.43 billion trips were completed on the DiDi platform in 2015. ^[ten]

DiDi Taxi: about 2 million drivers working in 400 Chinese cities; DiDi brings together 200 taxi companies to upgrade services. ^[eleven]

DiDi Express: Works in approximately 400 cities with the ExpressPool option. About 2 million passengers use car parking services to drive to work every day.

DiDi Hitch (sharing): 2.2 million daily trips between and within the city during rush hour. During 2017, during the Chinese New Year holiday, DiDi Hitch provided nearly 8.48 million passenger trips. ^[12]

Car rental: In January 2017, DiDi officially launched its international car rental service to serve Chinese travelers in more than 1,500 cities in more than 100 countries.

DiDi Bus: launched initially in Beijing and Shenzhen as a WeChat-based test in 2015. In Beijing, DiDi adopted the Kaola Bus fleet (考拉 班车) in September 2015. By the time the DiDi Bus officially launched in October 2015, DiDi Bus provided 1,500 daily rides and carried about 500,000 passengers daily.

DiDi Minibus: DiDi began offering minibus rides in December 2016. ^[13]

Public bicycles: DiDi has added the use of public bicycles since April 2017. Prediction analytics for the use of such a service will help improve artificial intelligence and real-time algorithms to better respond to the needs of users with reduced mobility. On January 17, 2018, DiDi launched its own bike-sharing platform, which includes Ofo, Bluegogo and DiDi-branded bikes. ^{[14] [15]}

Uber China: operates in more than 400 cities.

Tencent and Alibaba apps are open to all developers such as Lyft. ^[sixteen]

Artificial Intelligence (AI): DiDi created the DiDi Research Institute to focus on AI technologies, including machine learning and computer vision. The company hopes that technology will optimize the dispatch and route planning system. Several hundred scientists are working on technology at the institute. In March 2017, DiDi launched DiDi Labs at Mountain View in California. The focus will be on AI-based security techniques and intelligent driving technologies. ^[17]

Work with data: every day, the DiDi platform generates more than 70 TB of data, processes more than 20 billion routing requests. DiDi now creates a cloud platform with integrated anonymized data from sensors on vehicles, real-time static information from roads and streets, with data on DiDi unloading, trips and bandwidth. With this platform, the supply and demand for transportation can be effectively balanced. ^[18]

Smart Transport: DiDi uses its AI capabilities to help cities develop intelligent transportation solutions. DiDi launched intelligent traffic lights, an intelligent transport screen, thermodynamic diagrams of designated drivers, a smart bus, an intelligent traffic report and other programs in cities such as Jinan , Shenzhen , Guiyang , Wuhan and others. ^[19]

August-September 2015: DiDi formed a partnership with Grab, Lyft, and Ola in Southeast Asia, North America, and India to start collaborations in areas such as investment, products, and technology.

August 2016: DiDi acquired Uber China and acquired a stake in Uber .

January 2017: DiDi made a strategic investment in 99, Brazil's largest provider. DiDi will provide strategic guidance and support for 99 in technology, product development, operations, and business planning.

July 2017: DiDi leads a new round of Grab funding. ^[20]

August 2017: DiDi formed a strategic partnership with Taxify, a leading company in Europe and Africa. In the same month, DiDi also formed a strategic partnership with Careem, a leading online travel platform for the Middle East and North Africa. ^[21]

December 2017: DiDi plans to expand its operations in Mexico. ^[22]

January 2018: DiDi agreed to acquire 99 for $ 600 million. In the same month, DiDi approved LEDI Technology Co. as a franchise in Taiwan. ^[23]

February 2018: DiDi launched its new application in Hong Kong, which is an updated version of Kuaidi taxi. ^[24]

Cheng Wei (程维), one of the founders of DiDi, has been the CEO of DiDi Chuxing since the merger in 2015 between Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache. Cheng Wei worked for eight years at the Alibaba Group before starting his own business. At Alibaba, he spent his first six years in B2B business line sales and two years in Alipay service. Following the acquisition of Uber China, he joined the Uber board of directors. Cheng Wei holds a bachelor's degree from Beijing Chemical University.

Chuanwei Lu (吕传伟), CEO of Kuaidi Dache, was declared co-CEO of Didi Chuxing along with Cheng Wei after the merger in 2015. His actual involvement in managing DiDi is unclear. There were some suggestions that Chuanwei Lu sold the shares and left DiDi management.

Jean Liu is the current president of Didi Chuxing. Prior to DiDi, Jean worked for 12 years at Goldman Sachs Asia.

Environmental protection: In 2015, with its car manufacturing products, DiDi helped save more than a million car trips by saving hundreds of millions of liters of gas and more than 10 million tons of carbon emissions per year. ^[25]

Employment: DiDi provided over 17 million jobs for people, including a significant number of women, laid-off workers from traditional sectors and veteran soldiers. In 17 provinces of heavy industry, as part of a national restructuring program, more than a million former employees of the mining and metallurgical industries work as DiDi drivers. In addition, DiDi supports more than 4,000 representatives of innovative small and medium-sized businesses, who additionally provide more than 20,000 jobs. ^[26]

Diversity: 40% of DiDi employees are women. In 2017, DiDi launched a plan for the development of a female career and the creation of the “DiDi Women's Network”. It is reported that this is the first career development plan for women in a large Chinese Internet company. ^[27]

• xiaojukeji.com - official DiDi website (China)
• xiaojukeji.com/en/index.html - official DiDi website