Uber's Chinese Counterpart DiDi Launches Cargo Shipping Service

Healthcare, Financials, Automotive Author: Yuanpu Huang Jun 09, 2020 05:33 PM (GMT+8)

Chinese ride-hailing giant DiDi had added a city cargo shipping service on its app. This is the newest move for the once USD 60 billion-valued firm to keep investors believing in its capital story. 

Image credit: DiDi

Chinese ride-hailing giant DiDi rolled out its freight service DiDi Huoyun (滴滴货运) on June 6, 2020, making the once USD 60 billion-valued firm has a new story to tell to the investors. 

Users can have access to the DiDi Huoyun via the DiDi app. The company is recruiting drivers in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen among other six cities. DiDi Huoyun is competing in the cut-throat freight market. Two leaders, Hillhouse, Sequoia China-backed Lalamove, and Tencent, Alibaba- backed Kuaigou Dache, have gained a foothold already.

DiDi's American peer Uber focuses more and more on expanding its food delivery service Uber Eats, which reported gross bookings of USD 4.68 billion in 1Q20 (52% YoY growth). However, DiDi's efforts in food delivery have turned out to fail -- it could not catch up with Meituan Dianping in China's food delivery market.

Read more about Meituan and Didi.

Facing decreasing valuation offered by its potential investors, DiDi has changed its financing strategy to raise funding for its spinoffs separately -- the bicycle-sharing service Qingju and the self-driving unit have both bagged investments in the past one year. 

As of June 8, Uber's market cap was around USD 64 billion; DiDi is trading at a valuation of around USD 30 billion in the private market.