Uber rises as a fierce challenger to Didi Kuaidi as it sees rapid expansion in China. (Photo : Reuters)
Uber, the San Francisco-based car-booking service, has been experiencing a rapid expansion in China. The growth makes Uber an expected challenger to the currently leading Didi Kuaidi.
Uber has seen its bookings in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, increase 46 times than the bookings it listed from the U.S. city, New York. This is according to a report from the China Business News.
According to Uber founder Travis Kalanick, since last year, the car-booking app has gained around 20,000 drivers in Chengdu alone, a significantly large number compared with New York's 26,000 since 2011.
Uber works in a simple scheme: People who have downloaded the app can hire an Uber driver to take them to places they wanted to go to.
The China Business News report added that the Chinese market is the biggest the firm has outside the United States. Four of the top 10 cities where it has seen a whopping business growth are in China.
Kalanick also noted that last month, Chinese Uber drivers made nearly one million trips, a statistic close to the global tally (except China) for the second half of 2014.
The Uber founder furthermore revealed that it eyes to invest $1 billion in China, boosting its presence in the lucrative market and posing a significant challenge to the country's biggest taxi-hailing app, Didi Kuaidi.
Didi Kuaidi is the merger of the Alibaba-supported Kuaidi Dache and Tencent-owned Didi Dache. The firm is reportedly intending to launch a new venture, which aims to raise $1.5 billion in funding.
