Weibo announces US$142m investment in Chinese car-hailing giant Didi Kuaidi

Market-leading mainland Chinese taxi and car-hailing app Didi Kuaidi has closed a US$142 million investment from social media company Weibo.

The merger of China's two largest taxi apps was announced in February and has yet to gain regulatory approval. Valued at more than US$6 billion, the combined company has more than 1.35 million drivers operating in 360 Chinese cities, with a market share of around 99 per cent.

Didi and Kuaidi are backed by Chinese internet giants Tencent and Alibaba respectively.

Weibo said on Wednesday that the investment demonstrated its "high expectations" for the online-to-offline industry, in which Didi Kuaidi is a major player.

"The co-operation is likely to help Weibo boost its revenue, as the company will benefit from the increased daily transactions in taxi-hailing service," Qi Xu, an analyst for Beijing-based consultancy iResearch, told state media.

Asian spending on mobile commerce overtook the US in 2014, according to Tim Merel, managing director of San Francisco-based research firm Digi-Capital.