Mobile Internet firms to swallow more investment   

互聯網巨額融資成新常態 未來三方向猛燒錢

(ECNS) -- Investors are expected to bet big on China's mobile Internet industry since several leading players began employing dramatic fundraising maneuvers in the past few months, China National Radio reported.

Early in December 2014, Didi Dache, a Chinese taxi-hailing app backed by Tencent Holdings, raised more than $700 million from investors to further cement its position in the country's market. Its top domestic rival Kuaidi, backed by the e-commerce giant Alibaba, is said to have raised $800 million.

Kuaidi and Didi may also face increasing competition from companies abroad, including the incredibly well-funded Uber.

Ye Yun, director of communications at Kuaidi, said the company will further expand its taxi-hailing service, pushing into Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. It will also try new services, including express delivery.

China's Yelp-like website Dianping.com will reportedly also finish a new round of funding worth $800 million. Dianping.com has diversified its business scope from sharing restaurant experiences to include group buying, hotel bookings, wedding services and so on.

Dianping's mobile apps have accumulated more than 180 million unique users amid the rapid development of mobile Internet in China.

Several days ago, China's Xiaomi Inc, one of the world's fastest-growing smartphone makers, raised $1.1 billion in a round of funding and is now valued at nearly $46 billion.

Wu Shenggang, CEO of HUAN Technology Co. Ltd. said mobile Internet runs on a large scale business model that requires huge investment.

Wu said the O2O (online to offline) sector, hardware, and cloud storage are the three areas that will need a big financial push to succeed in the competitive market.

Internet expert Bao Ran said more fundraising activities are expected to provide storage of big data.