Uber on Tuesday announced a partnership with a major Chinese automaker, as the controversial ride-sharing service revved up efforts in the country.
Uber and Guangzhou Automobile Group will work together in areas, including investment, sales, marketing and promoting new energy vehicle, such as hybrid or electric cars, the San Francisco-based company said in a release.
Terms of the strategic partnership included Uber China promoting GAC automobiles and the group's used-car trading platform to ride-sharing service drivers and partners, NDTV reported.
"I believe we can unlock new opportunities to evolve how China moves, and open up even more transportation possibilities for riders across China," Uber China head of strategy, Zhen Liu, said of the alliance.
Launched in China in February of last year, Uber is active in 21 cities in that country, with plans to be in 100 cities within a year.
The firm established a Chinese business entity, Uber China, in a Shanghai Free Trade Zone late this year.
The head of Uber in October said the ride-sharing firm has spent $1 billion to gain traction in China.
Uber's share of the Chinese market had climbed from 1% at the start of the year to about 30%, but it remains a distant second to the Chinese ride-hailing app Didi Kuaidi, Uber co-founder and chief executive, Travis Kalanick, told a Wall Street Journal technology conference in California.
While the mobile-based service was hitting profitability in some cities in North America and Europe, it remains a money-losing "underdog" in China, Kalanick said.
