Uber today announced it will enable a wide range of apps in China to embed the ability to grab an Uber ride. This could make Uber ubiquitous in China as apps for maps, travel, local listings, or pretty much anything else could put in an Uber button for their users.
Uber is doing this by making its API tools available for the first time in Chinese to app developers, the company said today in a blog post. Uber did this in English back in August 2014.
“To ensure that developers have a great experience, we’ve made specific changes to our API services so that they work smoothly in China, added China-specific documentation to our developer site, and built a dedicated Chinese-speaking developer relations team,” said Uber in a statement.
Baidu buddy
This feature is already available within Baidu Maps because the Chinese search engine giant invested in Uber in December. The main page of Baidu Maps has a prominent “get a car” button, which transforms the mapping interface into something resembling Uber’s own app. That’s a big boost for the US startup as Baidu Maps claims to be China’s top maps app.
In today’s announcement, Uber revealed two Chinese partners that it’s been working with in private ahead of today’s public release of the API tools. One is Qyer, a travel diary and tips app. The other is Y Combinator-backed startup Raven Tech, which has embedded Uber-hailing into its Flow virtual assistant app. Once the app is released, the Uber integration will look like this:
Rui Xi from Raven Tech told Tech in Asia that the team was happy at “winning such a powerful partner” as Uber ahead of the launch of its artificial intelligence-powered app.
Uber will soon hold its first hackathon with Chinese developers.
Editing by Judith Balea and Michael Tegos
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