From last 2-3 days, we were discussing a topic daily in our team meeting that Why Apple invested $1Billion in Chinese Taxi aggregator Didi xihuang? Why an iPhone maker company changes its strategy?
Is this a master stroke from Apple to convince chinese government that they are not US based company only?
Or
Apple wants to show chinese people that they are ready to invests on chinese people on the theory of “if you care about us, we care about you”?
Or
A Gameplan from chinese government to show the world that how world’s most innovative smartphone company depended heavily on China?
Yesterday, I was watching a youtube video of Jack Ma (Alibaba founder) speech in Harward university, where he said that at business point both country’s China and America should support and maintain good understanding.
So I can feel that this deal is for long-term collaboration because Apple needs China and Didi needs technology. They have complimentary expertise and they share a common future in China & technology. So they just did a simple, no-risk deal. And in doing so, they began a more formal relationship between their two companies. I don’t see any business rationale beyond the relationship.
But perhaps (likely) this initial deal is just the first step toward larger collaborations? Perhaps a joint venture in cars? Large deals do tend to follow small ones.
Perhaps this relationship will turn out to be critical for one of them at a later time? A financial back-stop? It’s generally best to build your bridges before you need them.
Or perhaps they’re just two leading tech CEOs who recognize the world is changing quickly (the rise of China; the collision of technology, cars and transportation; the rapid emergence of more Chinese smartphone makers, etc). So working together on a changing terrain is a smart move in general.
I would be on the look-out for a potential big deal to follow this initial small one. What comes next with Apple and Didi will be interesting to watch.