Uber's Shift in Perception and Heavy Investment in Self-Driving Cars

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

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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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