Uber will soon face a huge challenge in the U.S. and India in the form of a new alliance including California's Lyft, China's Didi Kuaidi, India's Ola, and Southeast Asia's GrabTaxi.
The four ride-sharing services have formed a partnership that will go into effect early next year and allow customers to order cabs with all of their apps in all of the regions where they're available, according to Quartz.
The companies said Friday that they will share technology, local market knowledge and business resources, and that each country will use a secure API to manage mapping, routing and payments.
"Together, these companies now cover nearly all of southeast Asia, India, China and the US, reaching nearly 50% of the world's population," the four companies said in a press release. "Joint partner products will start rolling out in Q1 2016 (January-March)."
The alliance plans on gaining an edge over Uber by focusing on specific regions, as opposed to the global approach that the San Francisco-based company is taking, Autoblog noted.
"Local understanding, know-how, and operations are critical differentiators, especially when it comes to scaling locally, navigating regulatory environments and managing payments," GrabTaxi CEO Anthony Tan said.
The announcement follows almost three months after Lyft and Didi Kuaidi announced a ride-sharing partnership, according to Quartz.
While the four companies have gained popularity, going up against Uber won't be easy, as the company is currently valued at $50 billion and is the biggest on-demand ride-sharing app worldwide. Its app is available in 64 countries, and people can use it to book rides all across those locations.
Bhavish Aggarwall, CEO and co-founder of Ola, said that the alliance will be able to "build better mobility solutions in our respective markets" by learning from each service's successes and innovations, CNBC reported.
Uber is close to achieving its goal of raising $2.1 billion in venture capital, which will bring its value up to $62.5 billion and make it the world's most valuable private startup. The company has yet to comment on the newly-formed partnership.
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