Chinese Didi Users Can Now Hail a Lyft Car in U.S.

Customers of Chinese car-hailing service Didi can now order Lyft cars through the Didi app when they are visiting the U.S.

The app integration between Lyft Inc. and Didi Kuaidi Joint Co. is the first step in a broader coalition between some of the world's largest ride-sharing companies to battle Uber Technologies Inc.

Singapore's GrabTaxi Holdings Pte. said it plans to introduce a similar feature for Southeast Asian travelers visiting the U.S. in the coming weeks, and both companies plan to begin offering U.S. customers of Lyft a similar a similar experience when they are visiting Asia.

By tying together their apps, the companies aim to better compete with Uber, which lets millions of passengers hail a ride in hundreds of cities around the world. While Uber is much larger than Lyft, it faces significant competition in China and other Asian countries where strong local competitors have emerged.

"The network we are building today is based on the partners' shared idea that ride-sharing is a highly localized business," said Zijian Li, Didi's senior director of international strategy, at a briefing with journalists on Monday.

Didi users who open the app in the U.S. will see Lyft cars on the screen, which they can order and pay for using payment information they already have on file with Alipay or WeChat Wallet.

Drivers will be paid the same amount they would have for a local passenger. Representatives of Lyft, Didi and GrabTaxi declined to discuss how they would share revenue from each international ride.

Didi and Lyft also created a new language-translation option for the Didi app, which connects the passenger to a live translator who has been trained to help deal with communication between drivers and passengers. The translators work from a call center in China which Didi has contracted with, Mr. Zijian said.

Didi and its two biggest backers, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., invested in Lyft last year. As a result of that deal, Lyft began discussing ways to work with its Chinese investors to compete strategically against Uber, including sharing product plans, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal last September. Didi has also invested in GrabTaxi.

Lyft said it is also working with Indian ride-sharing startup Ola to offer a similar service in India and with Indian visitors to the U.S. Lyft, Ola, Didi and Grab all declined to offer more specific timing on when any additional features will be made available.

Uber and Didi are in a fierce battle for users and financing in China. Beijing-based Didi, which dominates the country's private car-hailing segment, is currently raising more than $1.5 billion in funding at a valuation of over $25 billion, the Journal reported last week. To better compete, San Francisco-based Uber last year formed a Chinese affiliate, UberChina, which was valued at more than $8 billion.

Write to Douglas MacMillan at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 11, 2016 23:35 ET (03:35 GMT)

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