Baidu Joins China Cab-Hailing Market With Uber Purchase

China’s top three internet companies are competing by proxy through their stakes in the domestic car services market following Baidu’s undisclosed investment in Uber earlier this week. Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent are already backing taxi-apps Kuaidi Dache and Didi Dache respectively.

Users of Chinese taxi-apps are expected to number 45 million by 2015, and local internet giants are vying to establish dominance in the fast growing market through a range of car-hailing models.

Unlike Uber, Kuadi and Didi both started with taxi-booking apps. Despite comprising the majority of the market, both are yet to monetize their massive user bases. Kuadi has taken the first step, however, launching the premium service ‘Kuadi ONE’ in July this year, competing directly with Uber’s Black Car services.

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