Technology

Days after raising $500 million via a strategic investment from travel giant Booking Holdings, Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has continued its international push with thelaunch of a local business in Japan.

Its new Japan-based unit is a joint venture with SoftBank, a longtime Didi investor, whichhas been in the works since an announcement back in February. Todaynews isn&t that the service is live yet — it isn&t — but rather than the JV has been formally launched.

Didi did say, however, that it plans to launch services for passengers, drivers and taxi operators in Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Tokyo and other major cities from autumn this year. Didi said that its users in China and Hong Kong will be able to use the soon-to-launch Japan service through their regular Didi app — thatinteresting since a ‘roaming& strategy involving Lyft and others arranged years ago never came to fruition.

And yes, you did read correctly that taxi operators are part of the target audience. Thatbecause Japan doesn&t allow unlicensed private cars to operate as taxis.

Thatmade the country a real challenge for Uber, which has held talks with taxi operators, and it also explains why one of the leading ride-hailing service in Japan — JapanTaxi — is backed by the taxi industry. JapanTaxi is even owned by an insider,Ichiro Kawanabe, who runs Japanlargest taxi operator Nihon Kotsu and heads up the countrytaxi federation.

Working with taxi operators means Didi has a fleet management platform, as above, as part of its Japan-based service.

That concession on working with taxis doesn&t necessarily mean that Didi isn&t focused on widening the market by enabling &ride-sharing& with non-taxi drivers in the future.

Reuters reports that SoftBank supremo Masayoshi Son — one half of the Didi Japan joint venture — made some family scathing comments at an annual event.

&Ride-sharing is prohibited by law in Japan. I can&t believe there is still such a stupid country,& Son is said to have remarked.

Didi, of course, is playing things more cautious as it rides into Japan.

The company said that the country, which is the worldthird-largest market based on taxi ride revenue,&holds great potential as a market for online taxi-hailing.&

&There is earnest demand for more convenient urban and regional transportation services, especially in light of the growing population of senior citizens,& Didi added via a statement.

The Japanese expansion is another example of Didipush to internationalize its service beyond China in 2018. Last year, it raised $4 billion to double down on technology, AI and move into new markets, and this year it has come good on that promise by enteringMexico, Australia and Taiwan. While over in Brazil, it leaped into the market through the acquisition of local player and Uber rival 99.

The 99 deal was a particularly interesting one since Didi had previously backed the company via an investment. Didi didn&t say much about the mechanics of that strategy, but it has investments in ride-sharing companies worldwide, including Lyft, Grab, Ola, Careem and Taxify, which you&d imagine, like 99, could be converted into full-on acquisitions at some point in moves that would speed up that international expansion.

If you've seen Huawei's Apple AirPod competitors and thought that you fancied a bit of that action, then we have good news. We've found a phone deal with one of the best phones on the market right now, the Huawei P20 Pro, and the ear wonders that are Huawei's own FreeBuds.

In this case the "free" refers to both the fact that they're wire-free and al

HMD Global has launched the Nokia X5, a cut-price Android phone that apes the look of the iPhone X.

Before we get into the specs, let's get a couple of things out of the way - the X5 has only been launched in China, but may get a worldwide release. If it does come to other markets, rumors suggest it'll sport a different name - the Nokia 5.1 Plus.

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