Apple

Apple pours $1B in Didi Chuxing, the largest car-share firm in China

posted by Daniel P. / May 13, 2016, 3:08 AM

Apple pours $1B in Didi Chuxing, the largest car-share firm in China

As traditional car brands like BMW are ready to release self-driving, fully electric vehicles, and have ventured into the car sharing economy, all with the purpose of fighting off disruptive technology like the Tesla cars, the Sillicon Valley giants are increasingly taking notice where the next tech frontier lies, too.

In sync with this trend, Apple has for the first time officially acknowledged to be a company invested in cars and transportation sharing. China's biggest Uber competitor just announced that it has received a financial backing of one billion dollars from none other than Tim Cook & co, from the small town of Cupertino.

The ride-share shop, dubbed Didi Chuxing, was initially two separate projects of the two biggest Chinese web conglomerates - Alibaba and Tencent - forming a joint-venture afterwards, and becoming a transportation behemoth, with presence in more than 400 Chinese cities, with no less than 14 million registered drivers. That's many times bigger than Uber in China, and the company is not suffering from lack of investments, even without Apple's contribution, as it is valued at about $26 billion.

Apple's chipping in not from the good of its heart, of course - it will help Didi build and expand the ride-sharing platform, and learn about the nuts and bolts of the Chinese market in the process, tipped Tim Cook. This is something that the struggling Uber can't offer, and hints at a possible larger interest in cars and transportation by Apple in general. Tim Cook downplayed any references to Apple's car project that might stem from this investment, preferring to talk about CarPlay instead: “That is what we do today in the car business, so we will have to see what the future holds," Mum's the word.

source: Bloomberg & Reuters

Options

9 Comments

1. Firenze91

Posts: 206; Member since: Nov 19, 2014

i think apple just wants to soften the Chinese government in order to get the recent bans thrown away

posted on May 13, 2016, 3:18 AM 5

2. joey_sfb

Posts: 6794; Member since: Mar 29, 2012

Apple would lose the money but 1b is a tiny sum for them.

posted on May 13, 2016, 4:14 AM 0

4. SIGPRO

Posts: 2817; Member since: Oct 03, 2012

Well they lost over 40 billion in a few days!

posted on May 13, 2016, 5:38 AM 2

5. Martin_Cooper

Posts: 1774; Member since: Jul 30, 2013

They didn't loose a sent. Its the value that went down not their actual cash, well over 250 billions in foreign banks. Apple its self didn't loose anything. People who bought shares did.

posted on May 13, 2016, 5:56 AM 1

8. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

Isn't it "lose a cent"?

posted on May 13, 2016, 3:16 PM 0

3. SIGPRO

Apple is kissing ass, nothing more nothing less.........Fail!

posted on May 13, 2016, 5:38 AM 3

6. sissy246

Posts: 7129; Member since: Mar 04, 2015

Kiss ass is righr. Why did they put that money in a US company

posted on May 13, 2016, 8:49 AM 0

7. TechieXP1969

Trying to sway the Chinese into buying your products using money for bribery...Aye Apple? The problem is, lots of Chinese want an iPhone, the price is to high. If you can give away $1Billion for tax credits and publicity, how about reducing the phones cost so they can buy them.

posted on May 13, 2016, 3:15 PM 0

9. TechieXP1969

This makes me wonder, how much Judge Koh got paid under the cloth. Had to have been a lot for her to blatantly violate Samsung due process in court and to go against her own country who is known to kill defiant countrymen. Koh, the Korean Prime Minister/President; has you number!