Uber投降了!??

也許不該用這么殘酷的詞總結Uber在中國的日子，但也沒有別的解釋，就在一年前Uber的創始人特拉維斯·卡蘭尼克還說，中國是Uber頭等重要的市場，一年后，它的中國業務卻和滴滴出行合并了，作價350億美元。?

中國再重要，也得面對現實。昨天，卡蘭尼克在博客中宣布，Uber中國將出售給滴滴。他承認，兩家公司都沒有實現盈利：“兩家在中國投入數十億美元，都沒能創造出利潤。”希望合并能解決問題。??

滴滴出行的市場占有率持續碾壓Uber，其中重要的原因滴滴不惜每年提供10億美元以上的補貼，承受10億美元以上的虧損。Uber承認自己在中國每年也虧損10億美元，但它無法縮小市場占有率上的差距。?

Uber無力壟斷中國市場，和滴滴的交易至少讓它在壟斷中占有一席之地。合并后的滴滴/Uber將占據中國共乘市場的95%。Uber中國是Uber的一塊獨立業務，其投資者將擁有合并后公司20%的股份。與此同時，滴滴向Uber投資10億美元，使其估值達到680億美元。?

這筆交易是滴滴買下Uber中國，但公平地講，如果Uber不在中國市場大膽下注，滴滴不會有今天280億美元的估值。??

2014年，Uber來到中國后不久，首次推出了受到好評的個人間叫車服務。那時候，滴滴打車正投入數億美元，與競爭對手快的打車爭奪打出租車市場的控制權。滴滴和快的都是將乘客與出租車對接的兩個簡單平臺，兩家公司都沒有Uber那樣巧妙的算法，除了在上下班高峰時打到出租車的機會（只要給你的請求加上1美元小費），能提供的服務不多。??

2014年底，百度投資Uber中國，顯然，除了打出租，中國的消費者需要更多的服務，2015年初，滴滴與快的合并，作價60億美元。合并后的公司積極招募私人司機，提供低價乘車服務，逐漸變成Uber殺手。??

如今，中國已經出臺了新規定，要求公司至少按市場價收費，取消了高額補貼。這也讓易道用車（市場占有率排名第三，價格比滴滴和Uber便宜一半）這樣靠低價生存的小競爭對手再也看不到未來。

?特拉維斯·卡蘭尼克當然希望在中國賺到大錢。但碰上滴滴這樣的競爭對和就沒撤了。滴滴只專注于中國市場，不久前又從蘋果公司等投資者那里融到了73億美元巨額資金。這樣一來，Uber的在中國的前景就不像潛在的機會那樣美妙了。Uber的投降就是明證。?

對于滴滴和Uber中國的合并，一些公司仍在消化這則重磅消息。

?Uber的中國業務將與其本地競爭對手滴滴出行合并，由此將誕生一個規模龐大的叫車業巨頭，同時結束Uber在中國市場的財務虧損困境。但滴滴當初的盟友們會怎么想？去年秋天，Lyft、Grab和Ola等公司與滴滴結成了所謂的反Uber聯盟，使他們的客戶可以使用彼此的服務。?

雖然目前尚不明確他們的反應，但對于Uber和滴滴新建立的親密關系，他們肯定會產生質疑。作為周一宣布的合并交易的一部分，Uber中國的投資者不僅可以獲得新合并后的公司20%的股份，Uber聯合創始人兼CEO特拉維斯·卡蘭尼克將加入滴滴董事會，而滴滴創始人兼CEO程維則會加入Uber董事會。

?這種安排，肯定會讓滴滴出行的合作伙伴們感到尷尬。

目前，Lyft似乎正在消化這則消息。Lyft在發給《財富》雜志（Fortune）的聲明中，提到了中國最近的網約車服務合法化，其表示：“我們始終相信，由于監管環境問題，滴滴在中國占有巨大的優勢。最近出現的政策變化，正是我們沒有在這一地區進行投資的原因。”公司補充道：“未來幾周，我們會評估與滴滴的合作關系。”

滴滴與Lyft應用的整合計劃僅完成了一半。通過該計劃，Lyft的客戶在中國可以用滴滴打車，反之亦然。

現在，滴滴客戶在美國旅行時，可以打開滴滴的應用，呼叫Lyft司機，他們的行程通知將翻譯成中文，并且可以獲得中文客戶支持。周一公布的交易并未提到關閉該項服務的計劃。

此外，滴滴在Lyft持有價值1億美元的股份，因此中斷兩家公司的合作變得更加困難。

最有可能的情況是，Lyft將慎重地限制滴滴與Uber的卡蘭尼克分享的信息數量。考慮到Uber中國與滴滴合并的計劃包括了員工合并，因此這一點將非常重要。據Uber發言人稱，兩家公司的應用將繼續單獨運行，但后臺技術會進行整合。

Uber和滴滴可能不再是競爭對手，但Lyft和Uber依舊是冤家對頭。東南亞的Grab和印度的Ola也是同樣的情況。

更重要的是，印度是Uber瞄準的另外一個巨大市場。去年夏天，Uber承諾將至少為印度業務投資10億美元，與當地競爭對手Ola競爭，當時Ola剛剛獲得4億美元融資，并且即將獲得另外5億美元資本。據Uber的博客稱，在那之后，Uber在印度從22個城市增加到了今天的27個城市。而Ola的業務在去年就已經遍及102個城市。

隨著該筆交易的完成，Uber管理層將不再為中國市場煩惱，或者至少不必再像以前一樣，所以，它必將加大對印度市場的開發力度。Ola發言人拒絕對此事置評。

Grab似乎不太擔心周一的合并新聞。Grab聯合創始人兼CEO陳炳耀在聲明中表示：“滴滴在中國對Uber取得的勝利，讓我們更加堅信叫車服務是一項本地業務，本地公司必將成為贏家。”他補充道：“我們的國際化戰略不變，不論用戶的旅行目的地在哪里，我們都會為他們提供便利出行。”從今年夏初開始，Grab和Lyft的用戶均在美國或東南亞旅行時均可以使用兩家公司的應用呼叫對方的司機。

除此之外，所有叫車服務公司有著錯綜復雜的投資者網絡，這一點更是不必言說。 （財富中文網）

譯者：劉進龍/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.