<div>China-based multinational internet conglomerate Letv has acquired 70 per cent stake in Yi Dao Car Services, a leading transportation network company similar to Uber on Tuesday (October 20).</div><div> </div><div>The investment makes Letv the largest shareholder of Yi Dao Car Services, which was founded in 2010 and currently holds 17.5 per cent of China's car-hailing services market.</div><div> </div><div>LeTV is reportedly paying US$700 million for the stake. The investment is part of LeTV's strategy to build its own O2O (online-to-offline) local services, digital content and smart devices ecosystem.</div><div> </div><div>Letv's founder Jia Yueting also confirmed the news on his social media account. "After establishing cooperation with Aston Martin and BAIC Motor and investing in DZ company (a leading charging pole infrastructure company), this strategic investment in Yidao Car Services means Letv has completed its mapping in the internet-based smart electric car industry, including fields like R&D, manufacturing, sales, auto-network, charging infrastructure, after-sales, car-sharing and public running and so on."</div><div> </div><div>According to reports Yi dao has been financially struggling in recent times, facing up against larger, better-funded rivals like domestic ride-hailing market leader Didi Kuaidi, which is backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd among others, and also from the gloabal leader, Uber of US.</div><div> </div><div>Yi Dao Car Services provides car-hailing services at 77 Chinese metro cities and 24 overseas cities like New York, Tokyo, Sydney, London and Vancouver. For Letv’s electric vehicle business unit, the acquisition completes the company's electric car strategy after it established cooperation with Aston Martin and BAIC Motor and invested in a string of upstream and downstream companies.</div>
