China’s Top Taxi-Hailing Apps Say They Will Merge

HONG KONG — If you can’t beat them, join them.

That seems to be the thinking behind a Saturday announcement that China’s two largest taxi-hailing mobile applications, Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, will complete a “strategic merger.”

But when Uber entered the Chinese market, Didi and Kuaidi were already dominant. More likely, Uber is positioning itself in China as more of a niche service, which could bring in handsome earnings even with a tiny share of the country’s enormous market.

Shanshan Wang contributed research from Beijing.

The New York Times