DHAKA: Taxi-booking app Uber has agreed to sell its business in China to rival Didi Chuxing.

Uber’s China business will retain its separate branding, and Uber’s global business will receive a 5.9% stake in the combined company, Didi Chuxing said.

Uber China launched in 2014 but so far has failed to make any profit.

The two companies have been fierce competitors for years, but Didi Chuxing dominates the market.

Didi Chuxing says it provides more than than 14 million journeys a day and claims to have 87% of the market share in China.

The company is backed by Chinese internet giants Tencent and Alibaba, and has also invested in Uber’s rival US taxi-booking service Lyft.

“Funding their China dreams was becoming too expensive for Uber,” Duncan Clark, chairman of Beijing-based consultancy BDA, told the BBC.

“Many saw it as an obstacle to their own IPO (Initial Public Offering).”

Uber has been struggling to break into the Chinese market despite having Chinese search engine Baidu as an investor.

BDST: 1648 HRS, AUG 01, 2016
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