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Apple Invests $1 Billion in Chinese Ride-Sharing Company Didi Chuxing
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You should thank the Nixon administration for opening the doors up with the Chinese in the 1960s, after Lyndon B. Johnson's exit, despite Chairman Mao's presence.
As for China as a tech transfer, well, they've learned a lot from us and what they're doing with other technological sectors is fascinating. For instance, have you seen their modern military?
Lesson: Don't MESS with the Dragon.
Don't underestimate China. Seriously. Even China's architectural developments are incredible to see even some have environmental preservation purposes. This isn't the 1960s anymore.
If Apple thinks it's investment in that company is going to do them some good, I don't think it will despite their 'intelligence' efforts. It's a method of bleeding Apple out bit by bit and I think it's far to say their Project Titan is just a service car that drives by itself and not meant to be sold for the public masses in car dealerships. If and when that does pay off, if EVER, Tim will be long gone ( he better be ).
It's basically China's way of saying " You can buy this business out here, but NOT here " in a protectionist stance because they don't trust American companies for the most part due to the espionage by the NSA/CIA. Sure, the Chinese are guilty of it, too.
I don't think this company is the issue here. I think the issue is China has millions of poverty stricken workers that could very soon get paid enough wages to have disposable income. Or in other words, China's economy surviving solely off the back of the underpaid worker (as it is now) will end. I do think Apple feels this will end sooner rather than later. Apple realising this are strategly placing themselves financially in China, using all the legal and other ways to ensure they are positioned well to take advantage of these new customers.
China is one of the few not already saturated markets. Apple realises this and is trying to take advantage of it.
China is one of the few not already saturated markets. Apple realises this and is trying to take advantage of it.
You again? In your twisted sense of reasoning the USA is a tech transfer from Europe. Grow up.
Please remind us of the amount of money Apple officially invested in MS, Logitech and Google.
My thought exactly.
Have a ready made customer who will have no choice but get an Apple Car.
And yes, Apple could make a better CarPlay system, at least in China.
IMHO, this is a very smart move since the world population of car is increasing rapidly, and is ripe for better interface technology (ever use Sync? used it twice, make Windows easy in comparison.)
I didn't read the entire thread, so this might have been said somewhere in the middle, but here it goes...
At first glance this may seem odd, but really it makes absolutely perfect sense on several levels. I'll just state the first and most obvious to me...
Business Economics 101: Diversify/Grow or Die!
At a time when the iPhone can't sustain infinite exponential growth (smartphone market saturation, the boom is almost over), Apple needs to either produce new products, tap new markets, or diversify into new business opportunities. China is a huge growth opportunity, and everyone needs to get from point A to point B, including 1 billion Chinese. With a cash reserve like Apple's, it's time to diversify and take some calculated risks. Plus, you know, they are probably working on a car.
Very smart.
At first glance this may seem odd, but really it makes absolutely perfect sense on several levels. I'll just state the first and most obvious to me...
Business Economics 101: Diversify/Grow or Die!
At a time when the iPhone can't sustain infinite exponential growth (smartphone market saturation, the boom is almost over), Apple needs to either produce new products, tap new markets, or diversify into new business opportunities. China is a huge growth opportunity, and everyone needs to get from point A to point B, including 1 billion Chinese. With a cash reserve like Apple's, it's time to diversify and take some calculated risks. Plus, you know, they are probably working on a car.
Very smart.
As far as I know, homosexual aren't wildly accepted in China. Discrimination towards homosexual is still high in China. However, China has long decriminalized homosexual and no homosexual were sent to jail or sentenced to death.
I personal know some homosexual friends in China, they are all free and sound.
You must be reading a different article. Which company did Apple buy in China?
Blatant copying is bad. But chinese not just copy, they always move, improve, rethink, redesign. They don't rest on their laurels producing rose gold versions of 3 years old tech product. They have no time for that or you'll be out of business the next year. And they grow astonishingly fast. 10 years ago high-speed rail was nonexistent in China. Today they have the largest high-speed railway network in the world. They build their own trains (copied from foreign ones and improved). In the near future the west will copy chinese products, since they will grow up and make (and are already making) their own.
Not really. There was a massive underground market for iPhones before Apple officially had stores there. People would smuggle them into the country and sell for high margins. People want what they want. People in China love Apple products because they love the status symbol and the privacy. This infiltration by Apple into China cannot be stopped now. Apple will win whatever they want there. To many millions of Chinese citizens are in the ecosystem now. Soon they'll use Apple ride sharing, etc. Apple took a smarter path in than any other tech company that's still on the outside looking in
Apple does invest in US companies and has been for years. You didn't know that?
Can I have some of what you've been smoking? The Cold War ended decades ago, and the only communist thing about China is the party's name.
This, on the other hand, is about Apple and global economy.
Sincerely,
A Millennial
My idea is that Apple's plan for it's upcoming car is NOT to sell them. Apple may retain all of their production and then sell transportation services. I'm thinking of something like Uber but with no drivers.
The investment in China is Apple's way of buying an education. They will learn a lot about how to run a ride share company and with luck actually make money while doing so.
Maybe Apple will lease a few cars in the bay area in Northern California (to allow them to be tested in real US streets) but I really doubt Apple will do it the way Tesla is. Apple will not sell cars. Apple wants to use their cars in some new way that does not involve people owning their car.
The investment in China is Apple's way of buying an education. They will learn a lot about how to run a ride share company and with luck actually make money while doing so.
Maybe Apple will lease a few cars in the bay area in Northern California (to allow them to be tested in real US streets) but I really doubt Apple will do it the way Tesla is. Apple will not sell cars. Apple wants to use their cars in some new way that does not involve people owning their car.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Apple
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Dear Millennial,
Learn more about China. Your age doesn't automatically imply that you're well informed.
Sincerely,
Gen X
Apple is looking to the far future. China is the place to be. China is BIG. If you took the population of the USA, all of Europe and Japan and added them all together, China is still larger than that. In the long term there is more money to be made in China then any other country. They are thinking 20 to 30 years from now.
There are already several high-profile businesses invested in Didi Chuxing. It dominates the market so much and you cannot really wave your hand on the side of the street to get a cab (Imaging you must use an app to call taxi in NYC).
Apple has several advantages by investing in Didi Chuxing. Currently, Didi is using WeChat Pay (like Paypal) and Chinese-owned map. Google is banned in China completely. If Apple can get the deals on using Apple Pay (remember, Apple gets fraction of commission from fee) & Apple Map, then they are looking at generating enormous income.
Apple has several advantages by investing in Didi Chuxing. Currently, Didi is using WeChat Pay (like Paypal) and Chinese-owned map. Google is banned in China completely. If Apple can get the deals on using Apple Pay (remember, Apple gets fraction of commission from fee) & Apple Map, then they are looking at generating enormous income.
It seems like Apple is following the path of Yahoo! Instead of doing innovation, Apple is trying to making money by investing money. That's so un-Apple!
Random companies don't go from $0 to $26B in value in 4 years and have that kind of market share.
I agree there is more to this, as this is not Apple's line of business, unless they will be selling them Apple Cars in a few years.
Thinking this was a backdoor way to be tied to a Chinese company so iTunes Store could go live again, and for a company with the kind of cash Apple has, it was probably a good deal...
Smoke and mirrors.
Connecting the dots, I've been saying for some time that Google would supplant Uber with driverless cars - using their installed Android base to predict demand in certain areas, and having their fleet move from charging stations to areas of high volume need, when required. Except now Apple is getting in on the market in China - a bigger market without market penetration by its main rivals from the US (both in terms of lower current car ownership per head, and in growing GDP by 2020). I'll also bet that China will have less restrictions on driverless vehicles, especially as they'll want to promote to their citizens that they are at the vanguard of modern science... Not withstanding China's efforts to move populations to urban areas. They'll want ways to reduce congestion in their massive cities, and Apple driverless technology can be a massive part of the solution. Apple will be able to rack driverless hours up in their vehicles without being so much under the US spotlight, which will help push through law-changes in the West to allow their then mature technology to penetrate the market. This could be massive.
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I expect if they bought the company, they then would need to support the service on Android, which is something they wouldn't want to be seen doing.