What do Lyft, Didi, Ola and GrabTaxi all have in common apart from their funny names? They're all trying to take on Uber.
The four companies have announced a partnership that will see them all trying to take on ride-sharing king, Uber, in different regions.
Lyft will be taking Uber on in the U.S., Didi Kuaidi in China, Ola in India, and GrabTaxi in Southeast Aisia. Not only that, but they will also be working together on developing new technology and services, starting with customers from each company being able to use their own local apps for transportation when they travel to a different location. This will begin in the first quarter of 2016.
According to the four companies, the plan is that they will keep their independence in their own regions, trying to continue to grow that way rather than do anything more drastic like merge.
"We're not excluding expansion to other places, but we are a startup and cautious about how we grow," said a spokesperson for Didi Kuaidi in an interview with TechCrunch. "The idea is not to merge and acquire but to find people we can work with. In China we have an urban population of 800 million but we are only currently serving 250 million, so we have a lot of room to grow, and this population will always be our priority."
While they might not be planning to merge anytime soon, they do all share a number of similarities. For example, all four share some of the same VC backers, with the most notable being SoftBank, which has even been described as Uber's largest rival because of how many competitors it invests in.
One of the reasons for cross-platform apps, according to the company, is that it will allow customers to travel more easily with apps that are more user friendly. The collaboration will also help the companies see how well they work together as well as where they might be able to reduce costs and share their ideas for new tech.
A gap in the market for these companies, however, is Europe. SoftBank has yet to invest in any Uber rivals in Europe, although according to some reports that may change in the near future.
Via: TechCrunch
