Meet the used car dealer who sold 1 million vehicles to China’s ride hailing giant Didi
For the poster child of China’s sharing economy, investing US$200 million in an online used car sales business had many scratching their heads. After all, Didi Chuxing co-founder Cheng Wei once declared that buying a car in the near future will be considered as unusual as buying a horse for transport today.
Don’t tell that to Li Jian, founder and chief executive of Renrenche, the company that Didi invested in six months ago. Li isn’t your typical used car salesman, who in the west have a bad reputation for high pressure sales tactics. The 38-year-old looks more like a geeky software programmer.
But Li was able to convince Didi to buy cars online – and lots of them.
“The plan is for Didi to purchase a million second-hand and new cars through us in the coming three years,” Li said, adding that some of the vehicles will be allocated to Didi drivers through rental and financial leasing arrangements.
Renrenche has been the semi-official car supplier to the ride-hailing king ever since Didi invested in the Beijing-based start-up last September, overtaking Tencent as its largest institutional investor.
