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Apple Invests $1 Billion in Chinese Ride-Sharing Company Didi Chuxing
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Apple...you lost. You pull this kind of stunt in China..and S*** hits the fan....you're it. You will be liable for endangering people's life. I have no confidence in you. Because you lack the brain of not understanding that China don't need you...but you need China...makes you.....a desperate house wife.
Uh, I just don't understand your post.
101.78 billion? Or 101.78 million? The former figure sounds too horrible.
Cash register sounds like "Cha ching!"
Sounds similar to ChuXING! if you say it out loud.
I think Apple's investment is going to pay off really well for them.
We both must have noticed my mistake at the same time. I thought I'd fixed it before anybody twigged to it until I moved to the next page and here was your post. It should have been 1 billion. Thanks for catching the error.
I bet he's another supported of that politician we are all thinking about.
And there's no shortage of them, so it seems!
Some people are so "chinaphobic", that whenever they hear "China", they are already triggered like that.
Um -- here's what I'm smoking. I'm a creative marketing director here in LA. Me and five of my counterparts (entertainment) signed up to drive UBER - for 4 weeks - to get a firm understanding of the ride share phenomena. Each night we worked we assembled at a meeting spot every two hours to document what we learned from the riders.
Needless to say the people we transported during this adventure were our captive audience and the data we accumulated yielded a TREASURE TROVE of valuable information about people's habits and how they interacted with TRANSPORTATION.
Apple entering that realm regardless of the market is GENIUS.
One strategic point we immediately saw in the L A market that I'd like to share was that -- at that time we were out there on the streets of LA - the VAST majority of Uber riders -- were iPhone owners.
Some of you will appreciate why this is a great move for Apple. Transportation is undergoing a paradigm global shift that is EPIC. Apple SHOULD have a place at that table and clearly THEY see it and they agree.
Shocked at how narrow people think these days.
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Exactly what I was thinking... Really, WTF does cabs in China have to do with Apple? It so random
Apple invested in a little company called Microsoft... they stabbed them in the back, when they released Windows.
Apple invested in a little company callled Logitech... they stabbed them in the back, when they used the same technologies Apple developed to manufacture mice for PC's.
Apple invested in a little company called Google... they stabbed them in the back, when they released Android.
Apple invested in a little company that made good and cheap sapphire glass screens... the president or whatever stabbed them in the back, took the money and got out.
Why?
Isn't that a little obvious?
Also, Apple has gobs of money spread out through the world, and the States wants 40% of that! That is ridiculous, so they have to either contract loans in the US to international banks, and pay them elsewhere in the globe. Or invest in foreign companies, instead of American ones.
They are doing what Microsoft, IBM and Google have been doing for AGES!
They could invest in the US..... Seems they are trying to make China very happy. I'm sure if they keep the right people sweet over there , all will be good, though I'd like to see Apple invest in the US, like they did with the Mac Pro production, and I'm not even American
I forgot to mention in my post the importance of the dealership network for traditional car makers. It is expensive, slow and difficult to manage from a corporate perspective. Tesla is already showing how to do this right, with their very online focused sales channels and over the air updates. This too will play a very important role in the disruption of the car market.
I was myself in a dealership last week and it was the most depressing experience of a long time. I was met with overeager sales people that I did not trust, bad overview of car possibilities and in transparent cost and price information.
A company that also focuses on these elements AND is able to actually produce profitable cars could be very successful in disrupting the car market. Boy does it need a disruption.
Paying workers is already an expense. Profits are what Apple retains after paying that expense, and they are restricted in how they can move that money by both US tax law and China. Buy Foxconn? Why is that any better of an investment? They have a pretty good deal going with Foxconn now, and Foxconn is likely not a growth opportunity, but ride sharing likely is.
If iPhone sales are declining, should they invest in the manufacturing facilities making those phones? Seems to me that would double their losses, no?
Ride sharing is a growing business in a slowing economy, it diversifies their investments, gives them influence in another part of the Chinese economy and exposure to another potential market opportunity. I don't see why people are uptight about this...
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You kind of have me wondering if you know what communism is... It seems a strange topic to bring up in this thread.
Probably one of those actions that doesn't make sense (to us) now, but will in the future. Hopefully it will make sense for Apple's sake.
Maybe they could invest in a USA sapphire company, make outrageous demands, let them fail by said demands (which weren't a part of the original negotiations), call in their "loan" early and force the company in to bankruptcy. All because sapphire turned out to not make a great phone screen.
Then, a thousand US jobs are lost and Apple swoops in to take over the assets for cheap. Pennies on the dollar. Like a hostile takeover but without the vaseline or smile.
Something like that?
No one should ever take money from Tim Cook. Not ever. The Chinese don't care because they have nothing to lose.
I get what this person is saying.
Have you researched communism and what it has caused over the past 100 years?
People are so quick to forget just how horrible it is. The party is still illegal in the USA, yet it flourishes.
And not to get off course here but as much as the Cuban people don't deserve their fate, we should never have opened up relations with Cuba until both Castro's were dead or exiled. Just my opinion.
What do you think communism is?
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True.
And it will yield more of what Nixon started. The largest transfer of wealth in the history of man.
You can't blame communism and you can't blame the Chinese people. You can only blame the companies that outsource, then you can go one further and blame the USA government for tripping manufacturers here with red tape, gross taxes and little-to-no incentives to stay here.
Well, I still cannot link "Cha ching" to "ChuXING", either in English way or Chinese way. But never mind, let's leave it be.
And about catching this error, no worries.
No, this is exactly what Donald Trump is talking about. Corporations don't spend a billion dollars to make a political preference statement. They spend a billion dollars when they see money. And the money is in China. Because of our tax code, that money isn't being spent here (in the US).
Anyway, investing in fleet in general is a smart move. I anticipate most people not owning cars in 10 years. When you need a ride, request a self-driving car to come pick you up. Bye-bye parking garages for the masses. Hello fleet depots.
That was exactly what I was thinking. Apple is going to get something in return, and not the "understanding the Chinese market" BS
It certainly is. Apple may have naively thought they were entering something remotely resembling an open market. This is probably just the first of many shakedowns.