Didi Chuxing, a Chinese ride-sharing service just received one billion dollars as an investment from Apple, making this the first official break of the company into the automotive industry.
Apple’s investment will help Uber’s biggest rival in China to build up a platform that handles more than 11 million rides a day and 300 million users across China, with other investors to include Alibaba and Tencent, the two largest internet companies in the country.
Bloomberg reports that the iPhone maker is looking for ways to grow even further, with CEO Tim Cook preferring services with higher profit margins, as well as searching for ways to better infiltrate the Chinese market.
The company still keeps its cards closed about whether they develop or not their own self-driving vehicle, with previous reports talking about hiring many automotive engineers from Tesla and Daimler over the past two years.
“We are making the investment for a number of strategic reasons, including a chance to learn more about certain segments of the China market,” said Tim Cook in an interview with Reuters. “Of course, we believe it will deliver a strong return for our invested capital over time as well.”
Didi Chuxing, which controls more than 87 per cent of the Chinese market, said in their statement that this was the single largest investment it has ever received. Expert analysts say that Apple’s move gives us a glimpse of how the US tech giant plans to develop its business model as sales of its mobile devices slow down.
General Motors has already been working with Lyft in the US, preparing a fleet of autonomous Chevrolet Bolt EVs for a trial run in the next year. Similarly, Apple’s deal with the Didi might lead to the development of their self-driving platform, using the network provided by the Chinese ride-sharing company.
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