Uber raises $1.2 billion for China expansion

Uber plans to expand to 100 more Chinese cities over the course of 2016, said the company’s chief executive Travis Kalanick on Tuesday.

The news comes a day after Uber confirmed to The Guardian that it has raised $1.2 billion in fundraising, led by search giant Baidu.

Targets doubled

At an event organised by Baidu, Kalanick said that the taxi on-demand company currently operates in nearly 20 Chinese cities, but plans to enter 100 new cities over the course of next year, doubling a target that was set just three months ago.

Highly lucrative

In June, the Financial Times obtained a letter in which Kalanick discussed Uber’s China strategy. In it he revealed that Uber riders complete 1 million trips per day. “This kind of growth is remarkable and unprecedented. To put it frankly, China represents one of the largest untapped opportunities for Uber, potentially larger than the US.”

Not the only ones

However, Reuters reports that Uber is not the only company that is betting big on China’s internet-based taxis becoming the biggest market in the world. The news portal cited sources that say Uber’s larger local rival in China, Didi Kuaidi has brought in $3 billion, an expansion of an earlier round.

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