Ride-hailing services Lyft, Didi link apps

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SAN FRANCISCO Ride-hailing company Lyft announced on Wednesday a partnership with China's largest car-hailing company Didi Kuaidi that allows each company to serve the other’s passengers and aligns them against a common competitor: Uber.Lyft users traveling in China will have access to the Didi Kuaidi app and Didi Kuaidi clients will have the option to use Lyft's services in the U.S., company executives said at a press conference in New York City. Didi Kuaidi President Jean Liu said the partnership, which goes live early next year, opened "a brand new era for the global rideshare industry."Lyft Co-founder and President John Zimmer said Didi Kuaidi invested $100 million in the San Francisco-based company as part of a financing round led by Japan's Rakuten earlier this year that also included activist investor Carl Icahn, Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings.The investment is widely seen as bolstering the competitive threat to Uber in its home market.The companies will take advantage of each other's knowledge of local regulations, which have stymied many tech companies' attempts to enter China, as well as technology, products and financial resources. Lyft is in about 65 U.S. cities but has delayed moving overseas, despite saying in early 2013 that it would be a global service by the end of the following year.It has been unable to shake its second-place status in the U.S., where Uber dominates in most cities.Zimmer said the partnership allows Lyft to bring its app to international travelers while focusing its resources on important domestic markets, such as New York City."Our calculation for the Chinese market is this is absolutely the winning strategy," Zimmer said in a phone interview. "By working with the best player in China, we have a definite advantage."Although Didi Kuaidi remains the dominant ride-hailing app in its home country, Uber is a threat there, too. Uber recently closed a $1.2 billion deal to enter 100 more Chinese cities in the next 12 months, Chief Executive Travis Kalanick said earlier this month. Didi Kuaidi, however, is set to more than double that with about a $3 billion round, sources told Reuters earlier this year. It's valued at $16 billion."Uber is a good competitor but we feel really good about our position in China right now," Liu said.Didi Kuaidi has more than 200 million passengers, 5 million drivers and 10 million ride requests each day. (Reporting by Heather Somerville in San Francisco and Kylie Gumpert in New York; Editing by Christian Plumb)

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