合并就是投降，滴滴是怎样成长为Uber杀手的？

Uber投降了!  

也许不该用这么残酷的词总结Uber在中国的日子，但也没有别的解释，就在一年前Uber的创始人特拉维斯·卡兰尼克还说，中国是Uber头等重要的市场，一年后，它的中国业务却和滴滴出行合并了，作价350亿美元。 

中国再重要，也得面对现实。昨天，卡兰尼克在博客中宣布，Uber中国将出售给滴滴。他承认，两家公司都没有实现盈利：“两家在中国投入数十亿美元，都没能创造出利润。”希望合并能解决问题。  

滴滴出行的市场占有率持续碾压Uber，其中重要的原因滴滴不惜每年提供10亿美元以上的补贴，承受10亿美元以上的亏损。Uber承认自己在中国每年也亏损10亿美元，但它无法缩小市场占有率上的差距。 

Uber无力垄断中国市场，和滴滴的交易至少让它在垄断中占有一席之地。合并后的滴滴/Uber将占据中国共乘市场的95%。Uber中国是Uber的一块独立业务，其投资者将拥有合并后公司20%的股份。与此同时，滴滴向Uber投资10亿美元，使其估值达到680亿美元。 

这笔交易是滴滴买下Uber中国，但公平地讲，如果Uber不在中国市场大胆下注，滴滴不会有今天280亿美元的估值。  

2014年，Uber来到中国后不久，首次推出了受到好评的个人间叫车服务。那时候，滴滴打车正投入数亿美元，与竞争对手快的打车争夺打出租车市场的控制权。滴滴和快的都是将乘客与出租车对接的两个简单平台，两家公司都没有Uber那样巧妙的算法，除了在上下班高峰时打到出租车的机会（只要给你的请求加上1美元小费），能提供的服务不多。  

2014年底，百度投资Uber中国，显然，除了打出租，中国的消费者需要更多的服务，2015年初，滴滴与快的合并，作价60亿美元。合并后的公司积极招募私人司机，提供低价乘车服务，逐渐变成Uber杀手。  

如今，中国已经出台了新规定，要求公司至少按市场价收费，取消了高额补贴。这也让易道用车（市场占有率排名第三，价格比滴滴和Uber便宜一半）这样靠低价生存的小竞争对手再也看不到未来。

 特拉维斯·卡兰尼克当然希望在中国赚到大钱。但碰上滴滴这样的竞争对和就没撤了。滴滴只专注于中国市场，不久前又从苹果公司等投资者那里融到了73亿美元巨额资金。这样一来，Uber的在中国的前景就不像潜在的机会那样美妙了。Uber的投降就是明证。 

对于滴滴和Uber中国的合并，一些公司仍在消化这则重磅消息。

 Uber的中国业务将与其本地竞争对手滴滴出行合并，由此将诞生一个规模庞大的叫车业巨头，同时结束Uber在中国市场的财务亏损困境。但滴滴当初的盟友们会怎么想？去年秋天，Lyft、Grab和Ola等公司与滴滴结成了所谓的反Uber联盟，使他们的客户可以使用彼此的服务。 

虽然目前尚不明确他们的反应，但对于Uber和滴滴新建立的亲密关系，他们肯定会产生质疑。作为周一宣布的合并交易的一部分，Uber中国的投资者不仅可以获得新合并后的公司20%的股份，Uber联合创始人兼CEO特拉维斯·卡兰尼克将加入滴滴董事会，而滴滴创始人兼CEO程维则会加入Uber董事会。

 这种安排，肯定会让滴滴出行的合作伙伴们感到尴尬。

目前，Lyft似乎正在消化这则消息。Lyft在发给《财富》杂志（Fortune）的声明中，提到了中国最近的网约车服务合法化，其表示：“我们始终相信，由于监管环境问题，滴滴在中国占有巨大的优势。最近出现的政策变化，正是我们没有在这一地区进行投资的原因。”公司补充道：“未来几周，我们会评估与滴滴的合作关系。”

滴滴与Lyft应用的整合计划仅完成了一半。通过该计划，Lyft的客户在中国可以用滴滴打车，反之亦然。

现在，滴滴客户在美国旅行时，可以打开滴滴的应用，呼叫Lyft司机，他们的行程通知将翻译成中文，并且可以获得中文客户支持。周一公布的交易并未提到关闭该项服务的计划。

此外，滴滴在Lyft持有价值1亿美元的股份，因此中断两家公司的合作变得更加困难。

最有可能的情况是，Lyft将慎重地限制滴滴与Uber的卡兰尼克分享的信息数量。考虑到Uber中国与滴滴合并的计划包括了员工合并，因此这一点将非常重要。据Uber发言人称，两家公司的应用将继续单独运行，但后台技术会进行整合。

Uber和滴滴可能不再是竞争对手，但Lyft和Uber依旧是冤家对头。东南亚的Grab和印度的Ola也是同样的情况。

更重要的是，印度是Uber瞄准的另外一个巨大市场。去年夏天，Uber承诺将至少为印度业务投资10亿美元，与当地竞争对手Ola竞争，当时Ola刚刚获得4亿美元融资，并且即将获得另外5亿美元资本。据Uber的博客称，在那之后，Uber在印度从22个城市增加到了今天的27个城市。而Ola的业务在去年就已经遍及102个城市。

随着该笔交易的完成，Uber管理层将不再为中国市场烦恼，或者至少不必再像以前一样，所以，它必将加大对印度市场的开发力度。Ola发言人拒绝对此事置评。

Grab似乎不太担心周一的合并新闻。Grab联合创始人兼CEO陈炳耀在声明中表示：“滴滴在中国对Uber取得的胜利，让我们更加坚信叫车服务是一项本地业务，本地公司必将成为赢家。”他补充道：“我们的国际化战略不变，不论用户的旅行目的地在哪里，我们都会为他们提供便利出行。”从今年夏初开始，Grab和Lyft的用户均在美国或东南亚旅行时均可以使用两家公司的应用呼叫对方的司机。

除此之外，所有叫车服务公司有着错综复杂的投资者网络，这一点更是不必言说。 （财富中文网）

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

Uber gave up.

It may never frame its time in China in such stark terms, but there’s no other way to interpret Uber’s merger of its China division with market leader Didi Chuxing in a tie-up worth $35 billion just a year after founder Travis Kalanick called the country Uber’s “number one priority.”

In China, priorities met reality. In a leaked post today announcing Uber China’s sale to Didi, Kalanickac knowledged neither company is turning a profit. “Uber and Didi Chuxing are investing billions of dollars in China and both companies have yet to turn a profit there,” he wrote. The hope is a merger fixes that.

Didi Chuxing’s market share has continued to outpace Uber’s, thanks in no small part to more than $1 billion a year in subsidies and losses. And despite Uber’s admission that it too was losing $1 billion a year in China, it could never close the market share gap.

The Didi-Uber deal at least gives Uber a stake in the monopoly it couldn’t create itself in China.

According to market share estimates, a combined Didi/Uber would control more than 95% of the Chinese ridesharing market. Investors in Uber China, a separate business under the Uber umbrella, will get 20% of the merged company. Meanwhile, Didi is investing $1 billion into Uber at a $68 billion valuation.

Didi is the one buying Uber China in the deal, but it’s fair to say that if Uber didn’t make the bold bet on China, Didi wouldn’t be worth the $28 billion it is today.

Soon after Uber came to China in 2014, it offered the first popular person-to-person ride hailing serviec. Back then Didi Dache was spending hundreds of millions to fight competitor Kuadi Dache for control over the taxi-hailing market. Didi and Kuaidi were two simple platforms to connect riders with open taxis. Neither had Uber’s slick algorithm, or really offered much except an outside chance at hailing a cab during rush hour if you added a $1 tip to your request.

After Baidu backed Uber China in late 2014, and it became clear Chinese consumers were about to demand a whole lot more ride services than regular taxis, Didi-Kuadi merged in a $6 billion deal in early 2015. The new company pushed aggressively into recruiting private drivers for a cheap car service. It was transforming into an Uber killer.

And now that new Chinese regulations require companies to charge at least the market rate for rides—eliminating the heavy subsidies that were a hallmark of the business just a short time ago—smaller tier players like No.3 Yidao Yongche, the startup that undercuts Didi and Uber prices by half, no longer have a foreseeable future.

Travis Kalanick undoubtedly dreamed of bigger riches in China. But facing an unflinching competitor in Didi whose only focus is China and recently raised an astounding $7.3 billion war chest from investors including Apple  , Uber’s outlook has never appeared as bright as the potential opportunity.Uber’s capitulation is proof.

Some of them are still digesting the big news.

Uber’s China business is merging with local rival Didi Chuxing to create a mega ride-hailing giant and put an end to Uber’s painful financial losses in the market. But what about Didi’s original allies—Lyft, Grab, and Ola—with which it formed an anti-Uber alliance, so to speak, last fall so that their customers can use each other’s services?

Well, that’s largely unclear for now, although they likely have questions about Uber and Didi’s new close relationship. As part of the merger announced on Monday, Uber China’s investors not only get 20% in the new combined company, but Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick will join Didi’s board while Didi founder and CEO Cheng Wei will join Uber’s.

The awkwardness of this arrangement for Didi’s partners is palpable.

For now, Lyft seems to be digesting. “We always believed Didi had a big advantage in China because of the regulatory environment. The recent policy changes are exactly why we did not invest in the region,” said Lyft in a statement toFortune, referring to the country’s recent legalization of ride-hailing. “Over the next few weeks, we will evaluate our partnership with Didi,” the company added.

The planned integration of Didi’s and Lyft’s apps is only halfway complete. The plan is for Lyft customers to be able to hail Didi rides while in China, and vice versa.

Today, Didi’s customers can open Didi’s app to hail a Lyft ride when traveling in the U.S., get their ride notifications translated and seek customer support in Chinese. There was no mention on Monday of plans to shut down this service.

Moreover, Didi still has a $100 million stake in Lyft, which makes ending their partnership that much more difficult.

Most likely, Lyft will carefully limit the amount of information that Didi shares with Uber’s Kalanick. This would be important considering the planned consolidation of Uber China and Didi including combining their workers. The two apps will continue to run separately while their behind-the-scenes technology is integrated, according to an Uber spokesman.

Uber and Didi may not be competitors anymore, but Lyft and Uber still do. And that’s also the case for Grab in Southeast Asia and Ola in India.

What’s more, India is the other mega-market Uber has set its sights on. Last summer, Uber pledged to invest at least $1 billion into its India operations to compete with local rival Ola, which had just raised $400 million and was on the verge of adding another $500 million to its coffers. Since then, Uber has grown from 22 Indian cities to 27 today, according to its blog. Ola, on the other hand, was already operating in 102 cities last year.

With Uber’s management no longer obsessing about China, or at least not the same degree as before, it can now double down on India. An Ola spokeswoman declined to comment.

As for Grab, the company doesn’t seem all too worried about Monday’s merger news. “Didi’s success over Uber in China strengthens our conviction that rideshare is a local business, and local champions will emerge as winners,” Grab co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan said in a statement. “Our internationalization strategy remains same as before, to bring roaming availability to our users wherever they travel to,” he added. As of earlier this summer, both Grab and Lyft customers can use their apps when traveling to the U.S. or Southeast Asia.

And all that’s not to mention the intricate web of investorsall these ride-hailing companies share.