Ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing, the main rival of Uber Technologies Inc in China, denied on May 30 about an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States in the second half of 2018.
The taxi market in China was worth USD 152 million daily in 2014, based on the average of 38 million rides a day at an average cost of four dollars per ride, and the market is growing at a compound rate of nearly 1.5% annually. It is estimated that Didi will claim 50% share of the taxi market by 2020. On the other hand, the chauffeured service market will be worth USD 1.14 trillion by 2020, and Didi expects to take 15% of the market share.
Earlier this year on April 13, Didi joined its US peer Lyft in launching a cross-platform that allows customers of the Chinese car-hailing service to order Lyft cars through the Didi app when they are visiting the U.S.
iyiou.com reported earlier that it received a financing document of the car-hailing company indicating that the company planned to go pubic in the United States in 2018 and the company’s valuation may reach USD 80 billion to 100 billion after the listing.
It is also indicated in the financing document that Didi carried out another round of financing in April, in which Apple invested one billion dollars, Alibaba Group injected USD 400 million and Tencent USD 200 million. (Translated by Claire)
