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[48 HOURS] No really, Apple tells Uber to fuck off and die
by kleinbl00

    The clues that this was not just an investment but a Statement were easy to spot: A billion dollars isn’t a random number -- it’s a headline-grabbing way to telegraph This Is A Big Deal. As is Didi president Jean Liu’s comment that the deal closed in little over a month. Then there was the way the deal was announced immediately prior to an 8pm (pacific time) press conference which the world’s tech reporters had to drop everything to be on (which they did, of course.) We expect that kind of thing from a Beyonce album launch, not a ridesharing investment announcement.

    This deal, and the way it has been positioned, is huge for Didi’s global media and investor cred. A partnership of this size with Apple positions Didi as a major international player, not just Uber’s “Chinese competition.” It undercuts the argument that Didi has won in China simply because of its closeness with the protectionist Chinese government. It says we are a serious, and fierce player in its own right, on a world stage. A four-year old Chinese giant that is already the second largest commerce platform in China next to Alibaba and is going international way sooner than we’ve ever seen before.