Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is headed for Australia this month.
The company said Friday that it plans to launch its ride-hailing service Didi Express in Melbourne on June 25.
That would mark the firm's second direct expansion abroad, with the first being in Toluca, Mexico. Both Melbourne and Toluca are markets where the world's best-known ride-hailing firm, Uber, currently operates in.
Didi has previously expanded abroad through investing in and partnering with local competitors. The company acquired Brazil's 99 Taxi earlier this year and has partnered with Estonia-based Taxify and United Arab Emirates-based Careem.
The firm is the largest ride-hailing start-up in China with 550 million users across 400 Chinese cities. The company bought Uber's mainland business back in 2016, forcing the latter out of one of the world's biggest markets for technology. Uber has been facing increased consolidation this year, selling its Southeast Asia business to Singaporean rival Grab and merging with Russian internet giant Yandex's ride-hailing unit.
Safety concerns
Didi said it had been piloting its ride-hailing service in Geelong, a city southwest of Melbourne, last month. It said the Melbourne service would include "rigorous" driver vetting and safety features including a round-the-clock emergency support line and location sharing.
It's latest expansion comes as concerns rise over the safety of Didi's platform after a female passenger was murdered after using the company's ride-sharing service, Didi Hitch, earlier this year. The woman, a 21-year-old flight attendant, was killed in Zhengzhou, the capital of China's Henan province, allegedly by the son of a driver registered with the company. According to Didi, the man driving the vehicle was not detected by the app's night mode facial recognition technology due to a technical fault.
Didi has moved to revamp its service following the incident. It initially suspended rides on the Didi Hitch platform for a week, and then reintroduced it with a 10 p.m. curfew. On Wednesday, the company said it would extend hours for the Didi Hitch service from 5 a.m. to midnight, but with the condition that drivers can only pick up passengers of the same sex between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. and between 10 p.m. and 12 a.m.
The firm, last valued at $50 billion after a $5.5 billion funding round in April 2017, has reportedly held talks about an initial public offering that would lift its valuation to between $70 billion and $80 billion.