Inside Didi Chuxing’s plan to become the world’s biggest transport platform
Ride-sharing giant Didi Chuxing is banking on its experience with congested Chinese cities in its expansion to other developing markets
China, the world’s most populous country, has more than 100 cities with more than 1 million residents each. Despite having a lower vehicle ownership rate than the US, there are already more than 300 million vehicles in China, or about as many people as there are in the US.
Those conditions have made China a suitable real-life laboratory for on-demand transport and ride-sharing in its different forms, according to Cheng Wei, the 35-year-old chief executive of Didi.
Last year, the Beijing-based company handled 7.4 billion rides, compared with 4 billion trips for Uber. Many of the lessons gleamed from matching transport needs for China’s mega-cities can be applied to other metropolises in regions like the Americas, which are also home to some of the most congested cities like Mexico City or Sao Paulo.
These developing markets will form the backbone for Didi’s global expansion, with the goal to become the world’s biggest transport platform in 10 years, serving more than 2 billion users, Cheng said at a briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.