FIERCE COMPETITION No profits for Uber in China

Posted on 02/24/2016 | About China

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said the private taxi rental service was not yet profitable in mainland China because of intense competition from rival Didi Kuaidi - a company that is the result of a February 2015 merger of China's two largest taxi-hailing firms Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache.

According to the tech news site Betakit, Kalanick said, "We're profitable in the USA, but we're losing over $1billion a year in China."We have a fierce competitor that's unprofitable in every city they exist in, but they're buying up market share. I wish the world wasn't that way."Uber's valuation of its Chinese business rose last month to $8 billion.Didi Kuadi is backed by Chinese technology giants Tencent and Alibaba and recently partnered with Uber's rival Lyft.A spokesperson for Didi Kuadi rejected Kalanick's claims saying the Chinese company showed the benefits of its larger size."Smaller competitors have to bleed subsidies to make up for their insufficient driver and rider network."He said Didi Kuadi currently operates in 400 cities and is performing well in more than half of them.