Didi Chuxing invests further in China's bike-sharing market
Didi Chuxing, the dominant car-hailing brand that holds more than 70 percent market share in China, has inked a deal to purchase Bluegogo, according to a Sohu news report on Wednesday.
The Sohu report, without disclosing the size of the deal, said a number of Bluegogo employees have already begun working at Didi's office.
Bluegogo was once the third most popular bike-sharing brand in China. However, after the year-long subsidy wars among the dozens of brands in China to compete for users, the two leading players, Mobike and Ofo, seized more than 90 percent of the market. A number of smaller brands, including Bluegogo, have since gone bust and exited the market.
In November, Bluegogo users found that their deposits in the app were unable to cash out. Some Bluegogo employees were also complaining that they hadn't been paid by the company for several months.
Backed by a number of technology giants including Alibaba, Tencent, and Apple, Didi secured more than $4 billion in its latest funding round led by the Japanese SoftBank Group last month, giving it a staggering valuation of $56 billion.
Didi's takeover of Bluegogo ties in with its investment in Ofo. It has also participated in Ofo's B+, C, D, and the latest $700 million E funding rounds concluded in July.
Ofo has put over 10 million bikes into operation in China, with total users exceeding 200 million and active daily users reaching 32 million.
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