Didi Chuxing (滴滴出行), the ride-hailing giant that vanquished Uber Technologies Inc in China, is turning to franchising in Taiwan as it expands its business.
Didi plans to only operate as a taxi hailing platform in Taiwan and is seeking to work with existing drivers that it is recruiting through Facebook.
The recruitment is being done by LEDI Technology Co (樂迪科技), which is the authorized franchisee in Taiwan, the company said in a statement.
While San Francisco-based Uber has taken its business around the world, Didi has been more cautious as it focused on shoring up its grip on ride-sharing in China. The Beijing-based company has a US$50 billion valuation and raised more than US$5.5 billion earlier this year, giving it cash to compete aggressively in foreign markets as it also builds capabilities in artificial intelligence and driverless cars.
LEDI “is conducting market research and exploring extensive community partnerships in Taiwan,” Didi said in the statement yesterday. “There is no definitive time line at this moment.”
Didi has not applied for a license for its Taiwan business, the Taipei-based **Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing an unidentified official from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
The steps taken by the Chinese company are a contrast to Uber, which halted Taiwan operations in February amid opposition from the government and local operators.
It later returned to the market after agreeing to work with taxi companies.
Taiwanese lawmakers and the taxi industry have been effective in getting the world’s most valuable start-ups to comply with local rules. Fines for illegally transporting passengers can be as much as NT$25 million (US$833,611), among the highest penalties faced by the company anywhere in the world.
Uber reportedly racked up NT$1.1 billion in fines in January alone.
Didi has only slowly expanded beyond its home market. In Hong Kong it offers some specialist services, such as sedans taking passengers across the border to Shenzhen.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San