Lyft and Didi Kuaidi, Global Ridesharing Alliance - Unravel Travel TV

Lyft and Didi Kuaidi announced (Sept. 16, 2015) Didi Kuaidi has made a strategic investment of $100 million in Lyft. Additionally, the two companies have entered into a strategic partnership that will leverage each company's technological strengths, product development expertise, rich local market knowledge and vast resources to bring seamless ridesharing to the U.S. and China. Didi Kuaidi's investment came as part of a financing round led by Rakuten earlier in 2015 that also included Carl Icahn, Alibaba and Tencent. With this investment, Didi Kuaidi has joined leading investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management and others in supporting Lyft's long-term growth. Under the partnership, the two parties will launch in-depth collaboration between their technology and product development teams, to achieve synergies in product innovation and enhance user experiences. Adding to the combined power of their advanced algorithm systems and ride-matching capabilities, Lyft and Didi Kuaidi will also share local knowledge and other business-related resources to explore new models of cross-platform and cross-regional market development, with an aim to build a healthy, collaborative global ridesharing industry.

As part of the alliance, Lyft and Didi Kuaidi will launch cross-platform interoperability so their existing users can access local on-demand transportation services offered by the partner company from their native applications when they are traveling in the U.S. and China. The number of visits between the two countries totaled more than 7.8 million in 2014 and continues to experience double-digit growth. The global coverage partnership will improve users' international travel experience and boost each partner's global market impact.

"Didi Kuaidi is excited to form this groundbreaking collaboration with Lyft, the first company to develop a peer-to-peer service," said Cheng Wei, CEO of Didi Kuaidi. "From our home base in China, Didi Kuaidi is building China's largest one-stop on-demand transportation service platform. As the industry innovation leader, Lyft will continue to build upon its existing market and brand power."

Jean Liu, president of Didi Kuaidi, said, "Lyft is the pioneer in ridesharing innovation and Didi Kuaidi has built success with a unique model that offers comprehensive transportation solutions in more than 360 Chinese cities. Today we offer private car, carpooling, bus, chauffeur and taxi hailing services to more than 200 million users in China. These along with other connected services will extend to Lyft's passengers. More importantly, the partnership with Lyft enables us to join forces in rapidly advancing global innovation and growth."

Lyft was founded to reconnect people and communities through better transportation. Co-founded in June 2012 by Logan Green and John Zimmer, Lyft is the fastest growing rideshare company in the U.S. Available in 65 cities, Lyft is preferred by drivers and passengers for its safe and friendly experience, and its commitment to affecting positive change for the future of our cities.

Didi Kuaidi is the world's largest one-stop mobile transportation platform giving every passenger the chance to find the kind of journey they want for their commute. From an original focus on connecting taxi drivers with passengers, Didi Kuaidi has now expanded its service, including taxi hailing, private car, carpooling and bus sharing, to 360 cities in China through its mobile apps, servicing 200 million people in total. We currently process approximately 3 million private car orders and 3 million taxi rides each day, representing over 80% of the private car service market and over 90% of the taxi hailing service market in China. Didi Kuaidi's one-stop transportation platform, supported by its strong big data capability, is designed to make cities more accessible and efficient. While helping China to meet the fast growing demand on transportation, Didi Kuaidi aims to change the way people commute, reduce the number of cars on our streets, and ease traffic problems and pollution in our cities through innovation and better allocation of resources.

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