Didi takes its overseas expansion drive to New Zealand but is the ride-hailing market big enough to make a difference?

Didi Chuxing is launching new operations in Auckland, New Zealand as China’s largest ride-hailing services provider continues an aggressive overseas push despite pandemic-related headwinds and stiffer competition in its home market.

The Beijing-based company started offering its ride-hailing Didi express service in Auckland, the country’s most-populated city, in early November and plans to expand into food and package delivery services once it builds a solid base of users.

“We see the Australia and New Zealand markets as an outpost for us to grab a bigger share of the global mobility market,” said Lyn Ma, head of Didi’s business development in Australia and New Zealand, in an interview this week.

Didi refused to reveal the total amount of subsidies it has set aside for its push into Auckland, where it will be competing for business in a city of 1.66 million people against long-time rival Uber and other existing players such as Ola and home-grown rideshare company Zoomy.

Globalisation is a core strategy for Didi after it became the top player in mainland China’s saturated market. Since pushing Uber out of China four years ago, Didi has been on a global acquisition spree, investing in Grab and Ola in Asia, Lyft in the US, 99 in Brazil, Taxify in Europe and Careem in Dubai.

“We expect Didi to be quite successful in penetrating the New Zealand market due to its localisation strategies,” said Asad Hussain, a mobility analyst at PitchBook. “Didi will be going up against Uber ... but Didi tends to take a very hands-on, curated approach to developing services for local markets, whereas Uber tends to launch with a singular, cookie-cutter app, an approach that has backfired on the company in the past.”