Episode 31: The Uber - Didi Chuxing Merger with Brad Stone, author of The Upstarts & The Everything Store

Topics covered include:


The global surge in 2012 of entrepreneurs starting
ridesharing companies, nowhere moreso than China 

Didi CEO Cheng Wei and investor Wang Gang’s backgrounds at
Alibaba, first entrepreneurial effort in Momo, and Momo’s pivot
to Didi Dache

The culling of the ridesharing herd in China down to Didi
Dache and Kuaidi Dache through brutal competition and involvement
of the “big three” Chinese internet companies 

Rise of the Chinese messaging apps and associated mobile
payments, and their impact on ridesharing

The 2015 merger between Didi and Kuaidi, brokered in part by
Russian VC Yuri Milner

Uber’s decision to enter the Chinese market, and early
success with investment and support from Baidu

The first meeting between Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Cheng
Wei in 2015—which does not go well

Subsequent “scorched earth” competition between Didi and Uber
throughout 2015-16

Negotiating an armistice: Uber’s agreement to sell its
Chinese operations to Didi in late 2016

End of the war, or just the beginning? January 2017: Didi
invests $100M in Brazilian Uber competitor 99

Sustainable growth, and building moats versus scorching earth



Sponsors:


WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25

Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry

Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25


 

Followups: 


Stay tuned for real-time coverage of the Snap IPO coming here
on Acquired! 



  The Carve Out: 


Ben:  Taming the Mammoth on Wait But Why

David: Conversations with Tyler Podcast by Tyler Cowen,
co-author of the Marginal Revolution blog

Brad: Yuval Noah Harari (author of  Sapiens)’s new book,
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow






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