China’s Didi buckles up for Spring Festival traffic and a possible price war with Meituan

Ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is locked in what it described earlier this month as a “war of the century” with its domestic rival, Meituan Dianping. Here’s the latest from the front lines:

• Meituan is aiming to become more of a “super-app,” Bloomberg reports, as the company originally known for food delivery services has recently added features like a digital wallet and the ability to book karaoke rooms, while pushing further into ride-hailing.
• Didi is selectively reintroducing subsidies to compete, according to Caixin, as drivers for the company in seven cities found themselves qualified for membership cards that came with extra pay.
• Caixin says that the move was a “sign the sector could be headed into a new price war.” A source from Meituan told Caixin that Didi was reacting to Meituan’s successful subsidy program in Nanjing, which had “invited Didi to act tit-for-tat.”
• Didi is expecting over 33 million passenger trips to be completed this upcoming Spring Festival (February 15–21) on its Inter-City Hitch carpool service, a number which according to TechNode is “three times higher than the passenger load from the last two years combined.”

• Private hospitals
  China’s biggest private mental health hospital dives on failed listing / Caixin
  See also our earlier report: First mental health-focused company goes public in China.
• Video streaming services
  China’s Kuaishou in $1 billion Tencent-led funding round, eyes IPO: sources / Reuters
• Belt and Road (?)
  Chinese contractors grab lion’s share of Silk Road projects / FT (paywall)
  “Of the contractors working on China-funded transport infrastructure projects in 34 Asian and European countries, 89 per cent were Chinese, leaving 11 per cent from elsewhere, according to the study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think-tank.”
• Smartphone makers
  Qualcomm signs $2 billion sales MOUs with Lenovo, Xiaomi, vivo and OPPO / Reuters
• People’s Bank of China
  China central bank governor’s retirement seen in absence from top advisory body / Bloomberg
• Regulations of drugs
  Gates Foundation works with China drug agency to raise standards / Bloomberg
• Fintech
  Ping An Group partners with SparkLabs to launch new fintech accelerator / TechNode
• Dairy industry
  Leading dairy Yili eyes 2 billion global customers by 2020 / Caixin
• FDI
  China’s inbound foreign direct investment hits record high / Caixin
• Private equity
  Exclusive: Beijing plans to boost scrutiny of Chinese offshore private equity funds – sources / Reuters