Didi Chuxing, formerly known as Didi Kuaidi, said in a statement that this is the single largest investment the company has ever received.
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The Chinese company provides a range of ride-sharing services, including taxi hailing, vehicle pooling and bus sharing, Apple’s investment is the largest investment Didi Chuxing has ever received.
Last September, Didi Chuxing invested $100 million in US-based ride-sharing firm Lyft.
The investment comes at a time when Apple is seeing its sales tumble in China, its second-largest market.
“[The deal] reflects our excitement about their growing business. and also our continued confidence in the long term in China’s economy”, Cook said.
This was the reason Apple CEO Tim Cook named in an interview with Reuters.
Business experts believe that Apple is making this move to stem the growth of Uber in global market.
Uber is the biggest cab-hailing service globally, but Didi rules in China by a considerable margin with an 87 per cent share of the market.
The company is often described as “the Chinese Uber” – and there is speculation that DiDi, like Uber, will look to raise more revenue from the delivery market. It was formed from the merger a year ago between Tencent-backed Didi Dache and Alibaba’s Kuaidi Dache. Mr. Cook believes it will help the company with a better return on the investment over time.
Didi may not be a household name in the West, but in China it completes more than 11m rides a day, serving 300m users across 400 Chinese cities.
The company will invest the money in DiDi, the primary rival to Uber in China.
Some analysts suggested that the iPhone maker’s investment in Didi Chuxing is part of its strategy to strengthen its relationship with the Chinese government, which recently shut down its mobile entertainment services.
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Investors are watching eagerly to see if Apple will enter the automotive industry. Citing unnamed sources, Reuters said the iPhone maker has hired a wide range of automotive experts and is exploring building a self-driving auto.
