In case you didn’t know, over in China, they have their own version of pretty much everything in the US. For example there’s Youku which replaces YouTube, then there’s Baidu which is kind of like the Google equivalent, then you have Weibo which is China’s take on Twitter, and so on. You get the idea.
They also have an equivalent of Uber called Didi Chuxing (formerly known as Didi Kuaidi) which has recently gotten a major boost from none other than Apple. Presumably Apple makes investments from time to time, but this recent investment is one that Apple has decided to publicly share, especially since they will be dropping a whopping $1 billion into the company.
According to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, “We are making the investment for a number of strategic reasons, including a chance to learn more about certain segments of the China market. Of course, we believe it will deliver a strong return for our invested capital over time as well.” Didi Chuxing has been recently seeking investments, and according to them, Apple’s investment is the single largest investment they have ever received to date.
That being said, Apple’s investment in the company isn’t that surprising. After all Apple had previously envisioned China as being one of their largest markets in the future, so it would sense for them to want to invest in said market.
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