- General
- July 19, 2018
- 4 minutes read
Didi Chuxing and Softbank team up for Taxi-hailing service in Japan
image credit : Didi Chuxing Chinese Ride-hailing behemoth Didi is expanding into another international market to add tothe number of…
image credit : Didi Chuxing
Chinese Ride-hailing behemoth Didi is expanding into another international market to add tothe number of regions it currently operates in and this time is teaming up with its major investor Softbank on the launch of “Didi Mobility Japan” which would see the ride-hailing company enter into a region where ride-hailing isn’t much common among many.
The service is scheduled to launch soon with trials beginning in the Japanese city of Osaka before expanding into the regions of Tokyo, Okinawa, Kyoto and Fukuoka.
Didi plans to launch this service for use by passengers, drivers and taxi operators in the country with the taxi operators being noteworthy due to Japan currently not allowing the use of unlicensed private vehicles for Taxi-hailing.
This move comes after Softbank head Masayoshi Son recently made a statement concerning the issue of ride-hailing not being allowed in Japan, Calling the initiative “stupid” quoting at a Softbank World Event “Ride-sharing is prohibited by law in Japan. I can’t believe there is still such a stupid country,”, as per Reuters commenting on his frustration with the country where he built Softbank from ground up and has been plunging its huge telecom profits into global technology investments.
Due to this law, current ride-hailing companies operating in Japan aren’t really operating ride-hailing services but more of a car dispatch service which Softbank head Masayoshi Son hopes will change with time.
Softbank put up $5 Billion into Didi’s huge funding round which happened April last year and has since upped its partnership with the company with this imminent launch in Japan representing one of the moves both companies have made to boost up Didi’s ride-hailing footprint.
Didi which recently partnered with U.S. travel giant Booking.com and took a $500 million investment as part of the strategic partnership also counts a roster of other notable investors including Apple, Alibaba, Tencent, DST Global and Silver Lake partners.
