The Chinese firm has begun recruiting partners and will roll out the services in Osaka first. Didi Chuxing, a leading ride-hailing firm backed by SoftBank in China, has announced plans to unveil a food delivery service across Japan starting from April as it looks to expand its overseas business. Didi stated that it has begun recruiting partners for food delivery and will be rolling out its services first in Osaka. Apparently, the decision was made after Didi had ramped up its expansion within the Japanese market. Didi has already established its taxi-hailing business in China with the help of Didi Mobility Japan, which is essentially a joint venture with SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate in July 2018. The Chinese firm has grown across more than 20 regions in Japan that also include Kyoto, Hokkaido, and Tokyo as well as partnered with more than 500 taxi firms. According to reliable sources, Didi will now be challenging Uber Eats by launching the new food delivery service, similar to the service offered by its key rival, Uber Technologies. Uber Eats had been launched in Tokyo in September 2016 which currently operates across 10 Japanese cities, while covering more than 10,000 restaurants. Reportedly, Japan has banned ride-sharing, which essentially depends on the drivers who have their own cars. This has led several ride-hailing firms entering the market by collaborating with the local taxi operators in order to launch taxi-hailing services. Citing reports, Uber has worked in the industry since 2014 and has content itself with high-end services for limo and food delivery before it launched a taxi-hailing test on the Awaji island that is located near Osaka in May 2018. It worked with around 20 local taxi companies on the island. The other industry players within the market also involve DeNA, an online service provider and JapanTaxi. Seemingly, Didi had made an attempt earlier to challenge Uber Eats in the overseas market as it had launched food delivery services in Mexico in April 2019 that covered three cities. Source Credit- https://in.reuters.com/article/didi-japan/didi-to-launch-japan-food-delivery-service-from-april-idINKCN20J0GU
