Didi Chuxing plans to conquer Latin America and displace Uber

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The transport application has already displaced Uber from China and the same happened in Southeast Asia. Now they plan to get Latin America's market

One of the recent startups that have caused the most excitement worldwide has been, without a doubt, Uber. Its transportation model based on informal drivers who lend their car to carry out the service has revolutionized the way in which the citizens of the world move. This happens not because this it did not exist before, but because it has been a more efficient way to unite passengers with drivers than what historically had been taxis. That without adding the economic attractiveness, because it is beneficial for both parts of the business.

Leer en español: Didi Chuxing planea conquistar Latinoamérica y desplazar a Uber

The Uber model has been so successful that many other startups around the world have tried to replicate the proposal of this North American company, adding small details that provide the mark of differentiation that each market needs. This is how Didi Chuxing, the Chinese transport company, founded in 2012 (3 years after Uber) has achieved today to be the leading company in transport, as a result of the displacement of Uber from its territory in 2016.

Read also: Uber: Latin America has the highest number of trips

This situation is not new, because, in terms of applications, the Chinese market is very strong, and sometimes so radically different from the western market, that common applications such as WhatsApp are overtaken by its Asian counterpart, WeChat in this case.

Didi plans to get Latin America

What is interesting in this case is the bet that Didi is making for the Latin American market, a market that in terms of startups is always very attractive for international investment. Didi already has an international presence and, in the Latin American case, is currently operating in Mexico and Brazil, with a view to expanding its market in countries such as Colombia, Chile and Peru, according to Reuters.

This extension of Didi has the objective of leading the market, according to Felipe Contreras, the public affairs manager of this company in Chile, who previously worked for Uber. However, leading the market in these three countries will not be easy, as they are not only competing against the great face of alternative transport, Uber, but with two other major applications that have created a significant gap in the market, such as Cabify and Beat. Not to mention the legal problems that drivers and companies must face daily because they operate under a gray area of the law.

However, this Chinese company is not the only one that comes to challenge the market in other regions, since the expansion of transport startups occurs in all directions, depending on what the users make of them. For example, Beat, the transport solution of Greek origin, has announced that it will seek to expand in Mexico, a place where Didi already operates.

It is, then, a two-way street. Companies are constantly looking for where to expand their services, and the Latin American market, with its deep diversity, offers alternatives for all. It is worth asking at this moment: will this transport alternative continue to be a headache for governments? Will they continue to act under gray areas or will they legislate in their favor, or definitively against? Is Uber and the like the future of private transportation around the world?

LatinAmerican Post | Jorge Ovalle

Translated from "Didi Chuxing planea conquistar Latinoamérica y desplazar a Uber"