By Sam Nussey
TOKYO (Reuters) - Didi Mobility Japan, a joint venture (JV) by China's Didi Chuxing and SoftBank Corp, said it would expand its taxi-hailing service to 13 cities across Japan.
The app was first rolled out in September in Osaka, a popular destination for Chinese tourists, where it has tied up with 40 taxi firms in an increasingly crowded market for such apps that includes rivals backed by Sony Corp (T:6758) and Toyota Motor Corp.
It is expanding into Tokyo and Kyoto from Wednesday, with a further 10 locations to follow in the current financial year.
Despite SoftBank's oversized presence in the global ride-hailing industry, such services are effectively banned in Japan, leaving SoftBank portfolio companies like Didi and Uber (NYSE:UBER) limited to offering services that match taxis with customers.
Didi is among a growing number of SoftBank Group Corp-backed companies launching JVs with SoftBank's domestic telco. Other startups doing so are shared co-working firm WeWork Cos and Indian hotel startup OYO.
As part of SoftBank's efforts to drive synergies between its portfolio companies users will be able to access the taxi-hailing service through Yahoo (NASDAQ:AABA) Japan's route-finding app and pay via PayPay, an app that uses tech from India's Paytm.