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China’s Largest Carmaker Expands Its Ride-Hailing Business

By Tang Ziyi / Jul 22, 2019 05:14 PM / Business & Tech

Photo: IC Photo

Photo: IC Photo

China’s largest automaker said it will expand its ride-hailing service to two major cities, marking its latest move to seek new revenue streams in the booming sector.

SAIC Motor Corp. said it will roll out its ride-hailing brand, Xiangdao Chuxing, in the city of Zhengzhou this Friday. The company already features the service in Shanghai.

SAIC Motor said it will also launch the service in Suzhou, a city of about 10 million people near Shanghai. It did not give a timeframe for that launch.

Despite conventional wisdom that first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shenzhen have bigger markets for such businesses, several automakers have chosen to go outside of top-tier cities, where ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has historically dominated the market.

China’s ride-hailing market is bigger than that of the rest of the world combined, according to Bain & Co. But with its 550 million users and more than 30 million active drivers, Didi commands over 90% of China’s ride-hailing market.

SAIC Motor’s ride-hailing service has attracted 2.4 million registered users since the service started in Shanghai last December, according to the statement.

Related: In Depth: Automakers Ramp Up Ride-Hailing Offensive to Unseat Didi

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