Uber first focused on high-end rides, competing with Didi and Kuaidi, until it became one of the most popular taxi-hailing apps in the country. (Photo : www.forbes.com)
Uber rides in China are getting close to one million rides per day, which is expected to surpass U.S. record this year, based on a leaked internal letter from Uber CEO Travis Kalanick obtained by the Financial Times on June 14.
According to the letter, the number of rides in three Chinese cities--Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Chengdu--is larger than that of New York, the largest city outside of China where Uber operates.
Compared to the four years that Uber has been active in New York, the three Chinese cities have made their achievement in just nine months.
Kalanick remarked that Uber's drivers in China are now "completing almost 1 million trips per day and the business has doubled in the last month."
The Uber executive's letter also included a graph showing Uber's accomplishments in 11 mainland China cities, which far outpaced the rest of the world in terms of the growth in rides.
First launched in beta in China in Aug. 2013, Kalanick's letter considered Uber's official launch in Feb. 2014 as the company's actual start in the country.
The leaked letter also revealed Kalanick's sentiments and opinion on several issues. Among them, he accused tech giant Tencent of shutting down Uber public accounts in its WeChat messaging app. He also claimed that cab drivers were "paid to stage protests" against Uber, although he did not disclose where the money came from.
The letter also contained Uber's plan such as its investment of over $1 billion in China in 2015 and its launch in 50 cities in China next year.
The CEO claimed that Uber has 50 percent of the non-taxi app market in China.
Kalanick also cited independent data showing the slowing growth of rivals, the Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache apps, comparing it with Uber's daily active users which showed accelerating growth. He, however, acknowledged that the two apps are much larger and still have a higher rate of growth in absolute terms.
The Uber executive said that Uber will start fundraising among institutional investors for the UberChina business, starting June 22.
The report, however, said that the CEO's letter did not mention the recent controversies, such as claims that its drivers are evading Uber's background checks or drivers using fake passenger accounts to get bonuses, as reported in the New York Times.
