Thursday, September 10, 2015

Inscrutable...those car-poolers

Actually, Adam Smith foretold that businessmen would meet to conspire...but their machinations would result in more and better service for the public;
In a funding round that closed in May, Didi Kuaidi [Beep beep, fast cab] Joint Co. invested in Lyft alongside China’s top Internet companies, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. , according to people familiar with the situation. Didi and Tencent were new investors in Lyft’s latest round and Alibaba put in more cash after an initial investment last year, they said. The size of investments couldn’t be learned.
That's money put at risk, by profit seeking (and praying?) investors. I.e., no guarantees the money will be repaid.
By investing in Uber’s top U.S. competitor, Didi Kuaidi and the Chinese Internet giants seek to boost the competitive threat to Uber in its home market as the ride-hailing app is expanding in China. Calling China its most important global market, Uber has set an ambitious goal to expand to 100 more Chinese cities in the next year. Didi Kuaidi dominates the taxi-hailing market in China and claims more than 80% of the private-car-hailing market there.
We (nor anybody else) knows how this will turn out, who will end up successful. But, enjoy the ride.

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