Ride-sharing apps are continuing to achieve major success throughout the globe, and India is no exception with its ride-sharing service called Ola.
The Chinese ride-sharing service Didi has joined forces with investors in order to fund Ola. Some of the investing companies include GIC, Falcon Edge, Tiger Global, and Softbank.
Earlier this month, Didi put $3 billion into Ola. The company also invested $100 million into United States ride-sharing service Lyft, and Didi was part of a $350 million financing round supporting Southeast Asian service Grabtaxi.
Many consider these investments by Didi to be a way of undermining Uber, which is its biggest competitor. Lyft and Grabtaxi are the biggest challengers to Uber in their regions as well.
Ola presently maintains an 80% share of the ride-sharing market in India. The company has more than 320,000 vehicles in 100 Indian cities and offers 750,000 rides on a daily basis.
Recently, Ola announced a $754 million expansion designed to increase its presence in India. The company hopes to raise its driver numbers by 100,000 before the end of next year with a $75 million initial investment.
Meanwhile, Didi is dominating the online transportation service industry of China. The company currently represents the vast majority of both taxi and ride-on-demand services in the country.
Didi has also increased its offerings to the public. Customers can now request customized shuttle services and carpooling services. Such offerings are a way for Didi to compete against Uber. They also help to lessen conflict with domestic regulators who question the legitimacy of ride-on-demand services.
According to Didi CEO Cheng Wei, the company is currently valued at $16.5 billion. The company has received funding from some of China’s largest sovereign wealth funds, including China Investment Corp. and Ping An Ventures.
Meanwhile, ride-requesting services have been under fire in other countries. Belgium recently banned UberPop, joining France and the Netherlands as countries that have outlawed the service.
China has also been rather harsh against ride-sharing services, threatening to suspend the licenses of anyone caught using Uber to provide taxi services.
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