Sunday, June 5, 2016

"Uber is being mocked by its biggest competitor in China"

'Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. 
It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage...'

-Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky, Rule #5

From Business Insider:
Not so long ago, Uber said it was losing $1 billion in China. But now, it seems that the transportation giant’s fortunes have changed — and significantly at that.

According to Zhen Liu, SVP of Strategy at Uber China, the car service will not only catch up to, but beat dominant rival Didi within the next year. “Last year, we were only operating in eight cities and we were [at] about one percent market share, Liu said in an interview at Converge in Hong Kong.
“A year later, we are about one-third of the marketshare and operating in over sixty cities across China.”

This is a bold claim given Didi’s impressive hold on the Chinese market today. Uber’s chief competitor claims 87 percent of the market in private car services and nearly 100 percent when it comes to taxis, says Jean Liu, Didi’s president. When speaking with CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” at the Code Conference on Friday, Liu took a jab at Uber, calling the company’s strategies “cute.”

“I find it quite cute because I’ve never seen a company put their competitor’s brand on their own homepage,” she said, referencing the fact that when you open the Chinese version of the Uber app, you’re confronted with an advertisement alleging that prices are 30 percent lower than Didi’s....MORE
Also at BI:
Uber’s biggest competition is now backed by Apple — here’s what it’s planning for the future