BEIJING: Apple said it has invested $1 billion in Chinese ride hailing app Didi Chuxing, the bitter rival of US-based Uber, as the tech giant seeks to better understand its second-biggest market.
The announcement comes as Apple faces headwinds in China, where it has seen huge drops in sales of its popular electronics, but is working to expand its mobile payments service and is even believed to have ambitions for driverless cars.
Didi, formerly known as Didi Kuaidi, is China’s largest ridesharing service, and the tie up may serve as a way for Apple to get to know the Chinese market ahead of a long-rumored expansion into the transportation sector.
“We decided to make the investment for a number of strategic reasons, including the chance to learn more about certain segments of the China market,” CEO Tim Cook told Xinhua.
Apple is thought to be one of a number of tech companies, including Google and Chinese search giant Baidu, that are developing driverless cars.
The move may also be intended to help Apple expand its Apple Pay service, which faces strong Chinese competition, analysts said.
The twin prospects may help soothe investors nervous about Apple’s prospects in the Middle Kingdom.
The company’s shares have dropped more than 13 percent since April 26, when it reported its first ever fall in iPhone sales, largely due to waning interest from Chinese consumers.
On Thursday, the stock closed down 2.4 percent, losing its coveted spot as the world’s biggest publicly traded company to Google parent company Alphabet.
The fall from grace, blamed on the company’s failure to expand into the lower-priced handsets popular in developing markets, came amid a string of bad news from China.
Last month, authorities shut down Apple’s movie and book services. Adding insult to injury, it was revealed to have lost a court case over the use of its iPhone trademark.
Hoping for a turnaround, Cook will travel to Beijing later this month to lobby senior leaders.
Didi, which also has backing from Chinese Internet behemoths Tencent and Alibaba, likely hopes to use the deal to strike a death blow to US-based Uber, its main competitor for the Chinese ridesharing market.
Apple’s injection was the “single largest investment the company has ever received,” said Didi, which dominates the car-hailing sector in China and says it has almost 90 percent of the market.
Uber, which has received funding from Baidu, along with state-owned Citic Securities — is a small, but scrappy competitor.
Didi and Uber both have deep pockets and have been locked in a war of attrition for riders.
In February, Uber said it lost $1 billion annually in China as it competes for market share and Didi is thought to be dropping similar amounts as both companies subsidise users’ rides, which are much cheaper than regular cab fares.
Last September, Didi’s president Jean Liu said the company was “burning through cash,” according to a report by Bloomberg News.
Though Apple’s investment in Didi is large, the deal seems more notable for its strategic rather than financial significance.
There are “lots of opportunities for closer cooperation between the two companies,” Cook told Xinhua.
One area they are likely to explore is mobile payments, according to Chinese analysts who say the investment could be a good opportunity for Apple Pay.
The service was recently launched in China but has to contend with well established existing competitors owned by Alibaba and Tencent — now its fellow shareholders in Didi.
Didi says it has more than 300 million passengers registered and provides over 11 million rides a day — numbers that provide an excellent opportunity for Apple Pay, according to an article on Chinese web site Huxiu.
“It is undoubtedly a good value for Apple to tie up with an app that has a large user base and where frequent payments are made,” it said.
It is technically illegal in China for private cars to offer rides for payment, and authorities occasionally stage stings to arrest drivers, but regulations are not often enforced, creating an opening for ridesharing services to flourish.
Didi invested in Uber’s US rival Lyft last year, along with Alibaba and Tencent, and announced last month that it would cooperate with it to compete with Uber on its own turf.
Apple invests $1bn in taxi app Didi
Apple invests $1bn in taxi app Didi
With the Strait of Hormuz closed … how many days can the world withstand an oil disruption?
RIYADH: The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most important maritime routes for the energy sector, with roughly 20 million barrels of oil passing through it daily, or about 20 percent of global consumption. Large volumes of liquefied natural gas also transit the strait, particularly from Qatar to Asian markets.
Any disruption in this passage directly affects oil prices and the stability of global supplies.
How did the crisis begin?
Concerns over navigation security in the strait rose with escalating military tensions between Iran and Israel during 2025, followed by reciprocal attacks and threats targeting energy infrastructure and shipping routes.
As tensions spread across the Gulf, risks to commercial vessels and oil tankers increased, prompting shipping and insurance companies to exercise greater caution or reroute some ships.
These developments alarmed global markets because the strait is not just an ordinary shipping lane, but a global energy bottleneck relied upon by oil exports from Gulf countries such as Iraq, Kuwait, and the UAE, as well as Saudi Arabia.
How much oil can the world replace if the strait is blocked?
If oil flow through the strait were to stop completely, global energy consumption would not halt immediately, because major countries maintain commercial and strategic oil reserves for emergencies, according to the Financial Analysis Unit at Al-Eqtisadiah.
According to the International Energy Agency, reserves held by the 38 countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, totaled around 2.83 billion barrels by the end of October. Based on the consumption of these countries, these stocks could cover roughly 61.8 days, according to an OPEC report.
These reserves are concentrated in a limited number of nations, with the US holding one of the largest commercial and strategic oil stockpiles in the world, estimated at about 1.68 billion barrels of strategic and commercial oil. Its crude oil reserves alone could last approximately 50 to 53 days if fully relied upon; however, actual supply depends on the maximum withdrawal capacity.
China maintains reserves exceeding 1.2 billion barrels, enough for roughly three months, while Japan keeps a stockpile covering more than 200 days of its oil imports.
Despite these large reserves, they are insufficient to fully replace the oil that passes through the Strait of Hormuz over an extended period, as the strait handles roughly 20 million barrels of oil and petroleum products daily.
A complete stoppage could initially be mitigated by drawing on global reserves, offsetting a significant portion of the shortfall. However, this measure would likely only provide relief for a few months before markets face increasing supply pressures and sharp price spikes.
Factors that could ease the crisis
Several factors may help reduce the impact of any disruption in the strait. First is the presence of alternative pipelines bypassing the strait, such as the Saudi pipeline that transports oil from the eastern region to the Red Sea. Some countries also have spare production capacity that can partially offset shortages.
Industrialized countries can further coordinate withdrawals from strategic reserves through the IAE, a measure used previously during oil market crises.
