Episode 31: The Uber - Didi Chuxing Merger with Brad Stone, author of The Upstarts & The Everything Store
Acquired - A podcast by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
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Topics covered include:
- The global surge in 2012 of entrepreneurs starting ridesharing companies, nowhere moreso than China
- Didi CEO Cheng Wei and investor Wang Gang’s backgrounds at Alibaba, first entrepreneurial effort in Momo, and Momo’s pivot to Didi Dache
- The culling of the ridesharing herd in China down to Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache through brutal competition and involvement of the “big three” Chinese internet companies
- Rise of the Chinese messaging apps and associated mobile payments, and their impact on ridesharing
- The 2015 merger between Didi and Kuaidi, brokered in part by Russian VC Yuri Milner
- Uber’s decision to enter the Chinese market, and early success with investment and support from Baidu
- The first meeting between Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Cheng Wei in 2015—which does not go well
- Subsequent “scorched earth” competition between Didi and Uber throughout 2015-16
- Negotiating an armistice: Uber’s agreement to sell its Chinese operations to Didi in late 2016
- End of the war, or just the beginning? January 2017: Didi invests $100M in Brazilian Uber competitor 99
- Sustainable growth, and building moats versus scorching earth
Followups:
- Stay tuned for real-time coverage of the Snap IPO coming here on Acquired!
The Carve Out:
- Ben: Taming the Mammoth on Wait But Why
- David: Conversations with Tyler Podcast by Tyler Cowen, co-author of the Marginal Revolution blog
- Brad: Yuval Noah Harari (author of Sapiens)’s new book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
