DiDi Chuxing and SoftBank Corp. have announced that both companies established a joint venture, DiDi Mobility Japan Corp. (“DiDi Japan”) to offer next-generation taxi-hailing services in Japan.
The joint venture will deploy DiDi’s world’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytic technologies on its open taxi platform. The platform will be available for all taxi companies in Japan. DiDi Japan will begin pilot operations free of a service charge to taxi companies in autumn from Osaka, expanding to Kyoto, Fukuoka, Okinawa, Tokyo and other major cities gradually.
With advanced mobile internet infrastructure and a global reputation for high-quality taxi service, Japan holds great potential as a market for online taxi-hailing. There is an earnest demand for more convenient urban and regional transportation services. DiDi Japan’s new platform uses its machine learning-based technology to make demand prediction for smart dispatching. The new service would help Japan’s taxi companies further optimize taxi-hailing services and increase passenger convenience.
“Through this joint venture, I am delighted to deliver DiDi’s most advanced transportation platform service with AI technology to the Japanese market. Combining DiDi’s outstanding innovation with SoftBank’s extensive business base including advanced network infrastructure, I believe the joint venture can provide new value to both consumers and taxi companies in Japan,” says Ken Miyauchi, President & CEO of SoftBank Corp.
“DiDi believes AI-based innovation may contribute to the new growth of the taxi industry and the public transportation sectors. We look forward to developing extensive collaboration with all industry players to assist in smart city programs in Japan and Asia”, says Jean Liu, President of DiDi Chuxing.
“DiDi Mobility Japan’s new platform aims to help taxi companies to improve their efficiency and utilization, enhance user satisfaction and build more broad-based demand for taxi services in Japan,” says Stephen Zhu, CEO of DiDi Japan and Vice President of DiDi Chuxing.
It is noteworthy to add that Softbank has invested in both DiDi and Uber. It bought 15% shares in Uber at the end of 2017 to become its largest shareholder while the bank joined other investors to invest $4bn in Didi.
