China's Didi aims for 100 million orders a day by 2022: CEO

BEIJING (Reuters) - Didi Chuxing, China’s biggest ride-hailing firm which counts SoftBank as an investor, aims to complete 100 million orders a day and have 800 million monthly active users globally by 2022, CEO Cheng Wei said.

The company will continue to expand its mobility services including ride-hailing, hitch, and bike sharing, while developing auto-related businesses such as autonomous driving and fleet management operations with automakers, it said in a statement.

The orders referred to include those from ride-sharing services as well as other services such as food deliveries.

Didi did not say what its current average daily global orders were, but last year it said it expected domestic ride-sharing trips, which account for the bulk of its business, could reach 37 million on September 30, before China’s national day holiday.

Didi aims to achieve an 8% penetration rate in China’s mobility market, Cheng said, explaining the company’s three-year strategy as quoted in a company statement on Friday. Globally the company is expanding its business in Japan, Australia and Latin America.

The bike sharing business, DiDi Bike, raised over $1 billion in its latest fundraising, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 143,000 people globally, has battered ride-hailing demand as strict containment measures imposed by the government disrupt business and bring most social activity to a standstill.

Uber Technologies Inc on Thursday withdrew its 2020 forecast for gross bookings and said it expects an impairment charge of up to $2.2 billion in the first quarter due to the virus outbreak.

Reporting by Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh. Editing by Jane Merriman, Kirsten Donovan

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