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Toyota is discussing funding DiDi, China's largest ride-hailing company, the Nippon Keizai Shimbun reported on May 29. In addition to funding the company, it is also discussing the establishment of a new company involved in mobile travel services. The total contribution is expected to reach about 60 billion yen (3.8 billion yuan). Toyota has invested in ride-hailing companies around the world and is building travel services. China, which belongs to the world's largest new car market, will also accelerate its firm foothold.

Toyota has invested a lot of money in mobile travel. Toyota invested 1 billion in Singapore ride-hailing service Grab on June 15, 2018, and announced on August 29, 2018 that it would invest $500 million in US ride-hailing company Uber to speed up its self-driving shared travel service. It is reported that Toyota's investment in Didi is also in line with Toyota's investment style.

If Toyota invests in Didi, the two sides have a lot of complementary advantages. Toyota is a traditional car manufacturer and has no experience in sharing travel experience, while Didi has a lot of user data and operational experience. The cooperation between the two sides will provide more convenient solutions for domestic mobile travel.

Toyota also participated in a consortium set up by DiDi to develop shared cars using pure electric vehicles (EV). Toyota will launch funding to further deepen cooperation. It is also discussing the establishment of a joint venture company to expand the business of vehicle rental for drivers using DiDi's services.

Intelligence, electrification and Internet connection bring a new wave of technological change to the global automobile industry. At the same time, there are business opportunities and challenges. Today, the transformation of traditional automakers to mobile travel services will be the direction of the industry in the future.

The strong cooperation between automakers and ride-hailing service platforms will not only enable mobile travel platforms to gain support in terms of vehicle sources and finance, but also enable automakers to customize the production of vehicles through the acquisition of big data, so as to create special vehicles that are most suitable for travel services, as well as access to new technology sharing, such as self-driving, intelligent Internet connection, and so on. Investing in uber and Grab Didi is a good thing for Toyota to get what it needs.

In the Chinese market, with the popularity of cars, auto manufacturers at home and abroad are actively developing a new generation of technologies such as sharing and self-driving. Toyota hopes to strengthen its relationship with DiDi and speed up demand for travel services in China.

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