China’s top ridehailing service, Didi Kuaidi, today rolled out a public SDK (software development kit) that enables third-party apps in the country to bake in the ability to hail a Didi ride from within their own apps.
This comes just days after Didi’s announcement that it hit 1.43 billion rides in 2015. By comparison, it took Uber six years to hit the billion-ride milestone, though Didi admittedly offers more services than Uber — including traditional taxi tie-ups and even buses.
Above: Hailing a Didi ride from within the Tencent Maps mobile app
Uber’s China unit, which just raised more cash this week at a $7 billion valuation (Uber keeps its China operations separate from its main U.S. entity), similarly rolled out its public API to developers in China last Sept. — likewise enabling third-party apps to hail an Uber.
Didi says it’s already been piloting the feature in a number of apps, including Tencent Maps, WeChat, AliPay, and on-demand service provider Dianping, among others. Uber already enjoys integration with Baidu Maps.
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