Chinese ridesharing and taxi app Didi Kuaidi announced a pretty startling statistic today: the company completed 1.43 billion rides in 2015. That includes 200 million rides completed in December alone. Didi says that its user base now exceeds 250 million, making it “the world’s largest mobile-based transportation platform.”
What about Uber, you might say? Well, Uber just completed its one billionth ride ever. So Uber did a billion trips between 2010 and now. Didi Kuaidi did nearly 1.5 billion in a single year.
Granted, it’s not an entirely fair comparison, as Didi’s 2015 number includes taxi rides booked through the app and bookings of all of its other services, some of which Uber doesn’t offer. But even in private-car ridesharing, data suggests Didi has 83 percent of the Chinese market, giving it a crushing lead over Uber. And since China is now the world’s biggest ridesharing market, maybe it’s no surprise that Didi is posting domestic stats that seem to outstrip Uber’s global stats.
First in rides, first in funding
1.43 billion seems like a big number, but it’s worth noting that Didi Kuaidi actually completed fewer rides than it raised dollars in 2015. The company closed a massive US$3 billion series E last year, the largest completed funding round in Asia in 2015.
Uber China – Didi’s only real competitor at this point – raised a round in excess of US$1 billion, but the final sum still hasn’t been made public.
Didi also made some major moves that likely didn’t have a significant impact in 2015 but could be very significant going forward. A high-profile alliance with America’s Lyft, India’s Olacabs, and Southeast Asia’s Grabtaxi should help Didi fight Uber on all fronts. And a big investment in Chinese food delivery startup Ele.me could see Didi expanding its offerings beyond just rides by delivering food in 2016. Stephen Zhu, Didi Kuaidi’s vice president for strategic development, told Tech in Asia in an interview last year:
“The next step, of course, is that if you can move people around, you can move things around. So that will be the next level of innovation.
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
