Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi to sell cars

Ride-hailing firm Didi said it will begin selling cars as early as the end of this month in response to car buying demand in the world's largest auto market.

Didi, now valued at 16.5 billion U.S. dollars for its ride-on-demand,carpooling and other transportation services, sold 200 cars in two hours and ten minutes on its mobile app during a trial sale on Dec. 12.

Didi declined to disclose details of the cars to be put on sale but said that it was already cooperating with leading carmakers and auto dealers on its test drive service launched in October.

It said there have been 1.4 million test driving requests for 93 models across 19 brands, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai and domestic carmaker Changan.

The test drive service helps identify demand and will likely inform car offerings on Didi's auto retail platform. The cars available for test drives cost from 100,000 yuan to more than 1 million yuan.

Didi said its Dec. 12 car sale correlated with its test drive service. More than 90 percent of its Toyota buyers on that day had used the test drive service.

Didi has accumulated a tremendous amount of data on car use preferences, as well as data on millions of cars performing ride services for passengers thanks to its app.

Didi says this data will enable it to make customized recommendations and make its app appealing to car markers for targeted marketing campaigns.

The expansion into car purchases also grants the firm some breathing space away from fierce competition in ride-on-demand services with rival Uber, whose aggressive expansion in China is chipping away at Didi's dominance. Endi