BEIJING: Taxi hailing app Uber plans to invest seven billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in China, the Financial Times reported on its website, citing a company e-mail.
The paper said it obtained the message sent to Uber investors this week by its CEO Travis Kalanick.
The FT posted a copy of the e-mail file in a hyperlink within the article.
“Given our recent success in the region and substantial market share gains, we are planning to invest over 7 billion RMB (over 1 billion USD) in China in 2015 alone,” the e-mail said, referring to renminbi, another name for the Chinese currency.
Uber riders were making almost 1 million trips per day with business doubling in the last month, the e-mail added.
It also said that Uber is operating in 11 cities in China, and over the next year plans to begin operations in 50 of the more than 80 Chinese cities that have populations of more than five million people.
Uber launched operations in China in February last year. The company in China refused to comment.
“We don’t comment on this article/topic,” Huang Xue, an Uber media official in China, said.
The US-based company helps put customers in touch with private drivers as an alternative to traditional taxis.
It has become the focus of global controversy and is facing legal challenges and limits on its activities.
Uber plans $1 billion China investment
