China’s Baidu To Invest in Taxi-Hailing App Uber

Uber may have just raised a fresh $1.2 billion this month, but the company looks set to welcome a new investor, Chinese Internet giant Baidu, which is reportedly set to invest as much as $600 million into the U.S. firm.

Luckily for Uber, the giants of the Chinese Internet industry have been expressing an increasing interest in American technology companies. Tencent has invested in a range of gaming and digital media companies, including Whisper, the anonymous social network. Alibaba has also primarily focused on media outfits. Baidu has made fewer investments, but it did recently put money into IndoorAtlas, a company developing location technology that works indoors.

“Uber needs a local player like Baidu that really understands the Chinese market,” said Li Yujie, an analyst at RHB Research Institute Sdn in Hong Kong. “Baidu is trying to promote its mobile payment system, Uber would help it gain more traffic and boost its location-based services.”

If Baidu does put money into Uber, it will be a significant expansion of its international portfolio of products and investments. Baidu has focused on emerging markets, including Southeast Asia, Egypt and Brazil, where it recently acquired e-commerce site Peixe Urbano. These are also some of the same markets Uber has entered as it focuses on global domination, and Baidu could be a potentially valuable distribution partner.

Source: TechCrunch