Apple has invested $1 billion (£693m) in Didi Chuxing, the car-hailing app that actually has a bigger market share than US rival Uber in China.

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This represents the single largest investment in Didi Chuxing’s history. The company provides more than 11 million rides a day with 87% of the Chinese market share.

Tim Cook says the move will help Apple better understand the Chinese market.

Meanwhile, Uber has been struggling to break into the Chinese market despite having Chinese search engine Baidu as an investor. In fact, they’ve been losing more than $1bn a year in China, spending huge amounts to subsidise discounted rides.

I guess Apple are going all-out after this bit of news this week:

Other companies might’ve freaked out and fired all their employees on the spot but not Apple, they’re going for where the real cash money is at – China.

You might say $1 billion is chump change to a company like Apple but still, it’s a major power move for them. And to then say it’s to ‘help us better understand the Chinese market’ has to be the downplay of the century. More like ‘help us better understand how to take over the planet’.

Looks like Uber’s going to get uber-punished for that to happen.