Weibo invests $142M in China’s biggest taxi app startup

Weibo, China’s Twitter-esque social network, has invested US$142 million into the nation’s biggest taxi app startup, Didi Kuaidi. An SEC filing (here) reveals the figure but provides no further details.

Didi Kuaidi is the proposed merger between China’s top two taxi-hailing apps, Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache. The merger has not yet received regulatory approval. It will create a monopoly covering an estimated 99 percent of the market for on-demand rides in regulated taxi cabs.

The investment is not so surprising since Alibaba owns an 18 percent stake in Weibo, and also has a stake in Kuaidi Dache – and therefore in the merged company.

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