Popular Chinese taxi service DiDi seems to be entering Ukraine.
DiDi hasn’t officially announced its entry yet, but it’s already published its first job vacancy in Kyiv on the GRC job search website.
The Chinese giant is looking for an operation manager whose main responsibility will be to launch the service in Ukraine. According to the vacancy description, the employee has to analyze the local market, manage staff and attract new drivers.
The person also must speak fluent English and have three years of experience in business consulting and investment banking.
The company has published a job vacancy on Feb. 7, three days after the Ukrainian news website AIN.ua first leaked the information. According to AIN.ua, DiDi will roll out its taxi service in Ukraine in 2021.
DiDi hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
If DiDi enters Ukraine, it will join the squad of the country’s big three taxi services — Uklon, Uber and Bolt (formerly Taxify).
The launch of the Chinese giant in Ukraine is “an expected and vital step” for the company’s expansion to the west, according to Taras Potichnyi, country manager at Bolt Ukraine.
Potichnyi said that the Ukrainian market will benefit from the competition by encouraging other companies to improve their services.
Customers and drivers will benefit too because the new company will give them discounts when it starts working in Ukraine, according to Sergey Smus, operation director at Ukrainian taxi service Uklon.
Smus thinks that the local taxi market will grow once DiDi enters it, for more Ukrainians will start using taxi apps rather than calling a traditional offline taxi service.
DiDi, Smus told the Kyiv Post, is expanding to new markets because it’s preparing to become a public company and sell its shares on the stock market. Last year was profitable for DiDi, despite the pandemic. Only the company’s taxi service made $1 billion net profit. The company finished 2020 with a 10% increase in rides compared to 2019. By contrast, Uber’s business suffered when the pandemic hit.
Although DiDi owns shares of Bolt and the Chinese branch of Uber, Potichnyi from Bolt Ukraine said that it is unlikely that it will merge with other services in Ukraine.
The Chinese taxi service is largely unknown in Ukraine, but it is gradually taking over the global market. Over 550 million users across Asia, Latin America and Russia use DiDi’s services, including ride-hailing and bike and e-scooter rentals. In comparison, Estonian tech startup Bolt that offers taxi service, food delivery and rental of electric scooters, has nearly 50 million users globally.
In China, DiDi is the most popular taxi service that dominates the local market. In 2017, the company was valued at $56 billion, making it the third-highest valued startup in the world.
DiDi raised investment from the world’s largest companies, including Japanese car manufacturer Toyota, U.S. tech giant Apple and Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba. Apple invested $1 billion in DiDi in 2016 — the single largest investment the Chinese company had received.
Ukraine’s taxi market is worth nearly $800 million, according to Uklon.
Uber claims that it is the most popular local service — about 4.3 million Ukrainians have downloaded its mobile application. In comparison, nearly 3 million users downloaded Uklon’s app, 2 million — Bolt’s.
All three companies resemble each other — they have apps that work in a similar way. To compete, they expand their services to new cities and towns in Ukraine. For example, Ukraine-founded Uklon is now available in 19 Ukrainian cities, Bolt — in 10, Uber —in seven.
They also roll out new services. Estonian Bolt launched food delivery and rental of electric scooters in Kyiv. In 2019, Uber launched its bus service, Uber Shuttle, which offers passengers the option of booking a seat in a minibus.
