Didi extends its influence in China's taxi industry

Chinese ride-hailing giant, Didi Chuxing, has signed strategic partnerships with around 50 Chinese taxi firms covering ten major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, in a bid to boost earnings of taxi drivers and improve overall industry efficiency. Didi said it was willing to provide technology and traffic flow to taxi operators and to support the integrated growth of the sector. Under the new deal, taxi drivers can accept bookings from Didi, and drivers on the app will be assigned orders rather than competing with each other for passengers. Didi Chuxing's systems a touted as benefiting taxi firms by helping with real-time monitoring of drivers and performance evaluation.

BEIJING -- Didi Chuxing, China's largest ride-hailing service, is teaming with taxi companies in a move that could further tighten its grip on the local market.

The company said Wednesday that it will forge partnerships with 50 leading taxi operators in China and leverage the 300 million people who use its ride-hailing app to help promote the use of taxis and improve the efficiency of taxi operations.