The originator of a taxi application Uber to start a trip to China

Reporter/Rotiu in a strict sound, the popular global taxi application originator Uber accelerate the pace of globalization expansion, and will look to the Chinese market. Recently, Uber company announced that after Singapore, Taipei, will be on July 31 in South Korea Seoul launch of electronic leasing business, in order to meet the new market for the operation of the cost of upgrading, the company is carrying out a new round of financing. According to people familiar with the matter, Uber this round of financing amount of 150 million U.S. dollars to 200 million U.S. dollars, investors including the Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and Google VCs, Uber valuation of about 3.5 billion U.S. dollars. Multi-source sources show that the financing is not yet completed, but is nearing the end. Although Uber in the United States is plagued by government regulation and other reasons, it does not affect its rapid growth and overseas expansion. "The focus for the next 12 months will be on the Asian market. Uber co-founder and CEO Karanik (Travis Kalanick) spoke at a press conference in Taipei. Following a succession of businesses in Singapore, South Korea and other areas, Uber's website recently published information on recruiting regional managers for Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The analysis suggests that the Uber has already been put on the agenda. However, looking at domestic taxi application market, whether it is to smash tens of thousands of dollars to rob the market's harsh competitive environment, or the government issued on the mobile phone software ban, for Uber is bad signal. Most people in the industry are also pessimistic, and they believe that, on the one hand, Uber's business model determines that it is not suitable for promotion in China, moreover, domestic regulations, government regulation, culture and other factors are different from the U.S. market, Uber will face more challenges. The 200 million dollar fund, founded in 2009, Uber its own function to "provide passengers with a high-end and more private travel plan" mobile applications, so it was initially targeted at private high-end private cars, mainly various luxury models and SUVs. In use, Uber taxi process is very simple, users just open Uber app program on the phone, you can see the empty map, and then click the button to call the car, the screen will appear the driver's name and contact method. Analysts believe that Uber will be the market entry point on the idle car, the surface is to effectively use the car idle space, actually formed with the taxi companies for customer resources, the nature of the government supervision of the trouble. It was not until September 2012 that Uber began to use taxis. In fact, Uber does not own any vehicles, but is good at integrating all kinds of resources. In the United States, this taxi application not only signed contracts with private, but also with various types of taxi companies, car companies signed contracts. But in other countries, Uber only works with companies. For the few innovative global public transport sectors, Uber's disruptive innovations have made their rapid global sweep. Uber revealed that, over the past year, Uber's average monthly revenue growth rate reached 18%, which means the past yearUber revenue has increased 6 times-fold. According to AllThingsD, Uber revenue is expected to reach $125 million trillion this year, higher than previously expected. The rapid development of the Uber also let the capital of the favor. In the B-round financing, Uber received 37 million of dollars of investment from Menlo Ventures, Goldman Sachs and Amazon CEO Bezos, and its business expanded from the US to 38 cities in Europe and Asia. For the new round of financing, Karanik said aggressively, "Uber has a fast-growing performance requirement, so the pace of financing is more aggressive than the average company." For Uber, there are many cities waiting for Uber to expand. And I just want to be sure that Uber can get financing to do this, and the sooner the better. He also said recently that the company had begun informal negotiations with a large E-commerce company, hoping to use the driver's free time to deliver the courier (has tried to send flowers and ice cream). However, this kind of business innovation has already touched and challenged the traditional transportation industry interest pattern. Recently, the Los Angeles government issued a "Stop notice letter" to the Uber, Lyft and Sidecar three major car rental services in which it "operates a commercial transport service without authorization". In addition to the car rental service, the ban also issued a warning to the drivers involved, the use of Uber drivers will be detained for 30 days. Uber is no stranger to the official ban. Uber has faced a number of regulatory hurdles since 2011 in New York City, where Uber also faces lawsuits filed by San Francisco taxi drivers and Chicago Motor Services. But after the Los Angeles ban was issued, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stood behind Uber's stance and warned that "excessive intervention by transport regulators could hamper innovation in the field." "Last month, Uber just won a judicial decision to operate an online call business in Cambridge, Massachusetts." "People who know my background know that a lawsuit is as familiar to me as going home," he said. "As a result of the pioneering process in the past daring to subvert and destroy, Karanik to the lawsuit is not afraid." Uber next stop: China and the United States market similar, in the Chinese market, government regulation and industry monopoly is the smart car industry's biggest resistance. For Uber, the Chinese market may be a difficult bone to chew. Since last year, similar to Uber, such as the use of rocking, tick-and-tick applications springing up at home, but also began to be severely restricted by local governments. This May, Shenzhen Municipal Commission took the lead in halting the local mobile phone hire software, the reason is, "mobile phone taxi software function settings and technology is not mature, leading to difficulties in industry supervision." Since then, Nanjing, Beijing and other land has also called off the relevant call car software services. According to the latest news, from July 1 onwards, "Beijing Taxi mobile phone call service Management implementation rules" began trial, the provision of clear mobile phoneThe call service provider into the city unified call platform, in the taxi industry to carry out mobile phone calls for access and exit conditions, for taxi app other fare increase services are canceled. Uber's road to China will not be easy for such stringent market regulations and requirements. Industry insiders even said that whether it is a private car or a taxi as a breakthrough, Uber will cropper. From the business model, Uber in the Asian market positioning is also a high-end service provider, the current service in Taipei is about two times the price of ordinary taxi service, this positioning and services can be recognized for the market is not to say, alone in the cooperative vehicle, Uber can not guarantee. According to a survey by a research group in Beijing in 2007, the number of black taxis has reached 92,000, far exceeding that of the 66,000 taxis that are formally registered. On the surface, a large number of motor vehicles for the Uber is good, but how to expand the business? In the private car field, our country stipulates that the private person may not operate the motor vehicle passenger business without permission, otherwise it is considered to be "black cars" and subject to government control. And in the field of taxis, the domestic software market has just started, the government's heavy encirclement and suppression. It is a great test for Uber how to acquire the related vehicles and develop reasonably within the policy. There is a smart taxi industry to talk to our correspondent, and government departments, is a taxi software in the domestic market to survive a major law. Tick-tock Taxi and 96106 cooperation is a typical example. There are sources said that this April, tick-tock taxi has been with the Beijing Cab dispatching Center for strategic Cooperation, technology docking work has ended. In addition, Uber positioning and domestic taxi software is not the same. From the user group, Uber is targeted at the relatively high-end users, the charge is twice times the average taxi, while the domestic mobile phone software for the ordinary taxi group. For Uber, it is not easy to exploit and capture this segment of the high-end crowd. "Money has become a secondary issue in this industry, and even if Uber holds 100 million dollars, it has nothing to do with winning." "Quick cab general manager Zhao Dong said.