Taxi-hailing app Uber in merger talks with Chinese rival to speed up global expansion

Ride-hailing app Uber is reportedly in talks to merge with its domestic Chinese competitor Yidao Yongche, with a deal in sight within a week.

Talks between the two had been ongoing for months, but were accelerated due to last month’s union of two other major competitors Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, reports in the Chinese media said.

Details of the deal were not given, but news portal Sina reported that search giant Baidu – a stakeholder of Uber and Yidao – was the main facilitator behind the merger and that the deal would be signed within the week.

Yidao chief executive Herman Zhou stoked rumours about the imminent merger after posting on his WeChat account a photo of an aircraft carrying another plane. He captioned it: “We must run towards the boundless universe.”

Both Uber and Yidao have not responded to requests for confirmation or comment.

Uber has failed to gain significant market share on mainland China since it debuted there last year, so a merger with a strong local partner would help it gain a foothold in the market.

Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, two of the mainland’s leading taxi-hailing apps, said last month that they would merge to create one of the world’s largest smartphone-based transport services.