Didi Kuaidi CEO outlines plans for world domination

Cheng Wei, co-founder of Didi Kuaidi (Uber’s largest competitor in China) yesterday announced some impressive future plans for his company. The company, which currently holds 87% market share in China's ride share sector, has established multiple partnerships in the US and Asia to compete with Uber, and last year claimed to have completed 1.43 billion rides in 2015 alone. It now has plans to “allow anyone to have a ride within three minutes, anytime, anywhere in the world, within three years” according to Wei.





Didi Kuaidi will become the dominant global leader in ride sharing, the chief executive officer of China’s largest ride share company said over the weekend, signaling his ambition to beat U.S. rival Uber in markets outside of China.

Cheng Wei, co-founder of Didi Kuaidi, said in a speech addressing staff at a year-end celebration event in Beijing that Chinese Internet companies have not lost any battles in the past, and Didi Kuaidi is determined to maintain that tradition.

Didi Kuaidi currently holds 87% market share in China’s ride share sector, and it has established multiple partnerships in the U.S. and Asia to compete with Uber.

According to Didi Kuaidi’s own statistics, it is already the largest ride share company in the world. It completed 1.43 billion rides in 2015, nearly twice as much as all taxi bookings in the U.S. and 1.4 times that of Uber’s total global orders for the past six years, cumulatively.

Its strategy to partner with local ride share companies to expand geographically is being tested, and it’s unclear how successful it will be.



Here are some key points of Cheng Wei’s remarks:

1) We used to think that the battle with Kuaidi Dache was the finals. But after the merger with Kuaidi Dache one year ago, we realized that it was just a qualifying match. Now we will compete globally.

2) Our objective is to allow anyone to have a ride within three minutes, any time, anywhere in the world, within three years.

3) Didi Kuaidi is already China’s second largest Internet transaction platform, second only to Alibaba’s Taobao online shopping portal. Even though our market penetration is only 1/7 to that of JD.com Inc. in second and third-tier cities, we have a much higher transaction frequency. Users may shop online two or three times a month, but they might need multiple rides each day.



4) We must maintain a lean organization. At the end of 2015, we had 4,950 staff. I hope the company’s headcount can stay under 6,000 this year… We should try to grow by improving efficiency, instead of adding more people. Therefore, we will focus on internal controls and management this year.