Chinese “Didi” launches services to compete with “Uber” in Egypt

DiDi, a Chinese transportation technology platform, has officially launched its services in the Middle East and will begin providing Waslny, Waslny Plus and Didi Express services in Alexandria on September 13, according to a statement.

Uber has a 12% stake in China’s Didi, making it the second-largest investor in the company after SoftBank, according to a CNBC report.

Didi is one of the largest Chinese companies, and the Beijing government seeks to control it by investing in state-owned companies.

The entry of the Chinese intelligent transport giant is expected to increase competition in the Egyptian market, especially after the recent entry of the Russian app InDriver, which limits control of Uber after its acquisition of Careem.

Didi said he will offer a welcome package worth 150 pounds that includes discount coupons for new users, and will also offer free trips worth 25 pounds every Thursday for 4 weeks to his clients.

The company added that it will not collect any fees from drivers during the first four weeks of the service launch, with drivers receiving a financial reward if they make 10 trips in the first week of registration, and the driver will receive a reward of 25 pounds for each new successful user invitation, in addition to a tiered reward system that the “captain” gets when he obtains a certain number of invitations and receives a pack of welcome (150 pounds of coupons).