<story><title>Apple invests $1B in Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing</title><url>http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-china-idUSKCN0Y404W</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>devy</author><text>There were a few ideas floating around Chinese tech blogs, of the most possible reasons are:&lt;p&gt;1. Integrate Apple Pay into Didi Chuxing apps, which is estimated to have 300MM users in China[1]. Didi currently only accepts payment with Weixin(aka WeChat) Pay and Ali Pay (aka Ant Financial Services Group, owned by Alibaba Group).&lt;p&gt;2. Massive data points for developing Apple&amp;#x27;s self-driving technology. Didi operates in 400 Chinese cities with over 11 million rides per day, and accounts for 80% private car hailing market and 99% taxi hailing market.[2]&lt;p&gt;3. And yes, investing into Chinese tech sector give them a better leverage in negotiations with the government and also like sbuccini said, association with other Didi&amp;#x27;s major investors.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;5&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;11669178&amp;#x2F;apple-invests-1-billion-in-chinese-transportation-service-didi-chuxing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;5&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;11669178&amp;#x2F;apple-invests-1-b...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Didi_Chuxing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Didi_Chuxing&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple invests $1B in Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing</title><url>http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-china-idUSKCN0Y404W</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>sbuccini</author><text>Apple has huge stores of cash sitting overseas. They can&amp;#x27;t bring it home without subject to large tax penalties. With that cash stockpile growing, it seems like they&amp;#x27;re having trouble finding ways to put that money to work overseas. I wonder if they would have still made this investment if they had the ability to bring that money back stateside without hefty tax liabilities.&lt;p&gt;Regardless, a $1B is not a small chunk of change, even for Apple. Clearly, natural synergies could arise when Project Titan matures. But Apple tightly coupling itself with a rising player in the Chinese tech sector is a smart play (not to mention associating itself with other notable Didi investors like Alibaba). We&amp;#x27;ve seen similar moves by Uber, who took a large investment from Baidu.&lt;p&gt;Interesting times ahead.</text></comment>