Didi Kuaidi partners with Lyft and invests $100M to take on Uber

At a press conference in the US, American ridesharing app and Uber competitor Lyft just announced officially that it has partnered with Didi Kuaidi to integrate the two apps. The partnership will allow Lyft users to use Lyft app in China, and Didi users to use the Didi app in the US. It’s not clear exactly how this will work, but Lyft co-founder and president John Zimmer said that when the feature launches next year, all of Didi’s various services should be available to Lyft users and vice-versa.

Didi Kuaidi has also invested US$100 million in Lyft as part of the deal. That investment was part of a round Lyft closed earlier this year, which Didi backers Tencent and Alibaba also took part in.

Additionally, the two companies will be cooperating and information-sharing on both product and technology fronts to improve their respective offerings. They will also share local knowledge and business resources.

Here’s how Lyft explains the new partnership from a consumer perspective:

The enemy of my enemy

Although the companies’ press materials about the partnership don’t mention Uber, it’s the elephant in the room: the American company is Lyft’s primary competitor in the US and Didi’s primary competitor on China. Didi is already way ahead in China – it controls 99 percent of the taxi market and 80 percent of the private-car market, the company says. It currently serves three million private-car trips a day.

Lyft’s situation is less clear. By all accounts, Uber has long been and remains the market leader in the US, but its precise market share at the moment isn’t clear. During the press conference, Didi president Jean Liu said that Didi has been impressed with Lyft’s market share growth in key urban markets in the US, but didn’t offer specific numbers.

Of course, if a global battle with Uber is on, there’s another big market to consider: India. Are Didi and Lyft working on any kind of partnership with Uber’s chief competitor there, Olacabs? “We’ll announce different parts of our global strategy down the road,” said Lyft president John Zimmer with a smile.