Ride sharing service Uber keeps making important announcements lately. After introducing the new meal delivery service, the company also announced that they’re planning to expand into 18 new cities in China by the end of February 2016.
They are currently trying to cover as much areas from China, as last week, they’ve also announced that the service will also start working in 15 cities from the Sichuan province, just before the beginning of the Chinese New Year, in February 2016, states Mashable.
Aiming to conquer the busiest places in the area
After the two expansions will be completed, by the end of next month, Uber’s network will count 55 cities in China.
Three of the main targets of the expansion in Southern China will be the Guangdong, Hunan and Hubei provinces, where the company is already present, but without reaching many second-tier and third-tier cities.
Guangdong, for example, can have a huge impact on Uber’s business, registering a 3000% growth in the number of riders in the province in 2015. As for Guangzhou, it was the Uber’s busiest city, at a global level, for a big part of Q3 and Q4 2015.
The competition is more than powerful
Still, despite their global success, Uber will have to deal in China with a very strong competitor: Didi Kuadi. Their main advantage is the massive network they own, offering the service in about 200 cities, while the U.S.-based company is still under 100.
Finally, Uber’s big plan is to reach 100 cities, throughout China, by the end of 2016. It won’t be enough to be able to compete with Didi Kuadi, but they will get big enough and eventually turn into a serious competitor for their main rival.
“We expect to be able to quickly build scale in these new regions. We will then use these cities as bases for further growth of our network around the region,” said Uber China’s regional general manager for the southern provinces, Luo Gang.
