Uber to renew push to expand in Japan with taxi partnerships

(Feb 21): Uber Technologies Inc. isn’t ready to give up the world.

Dara Khosrowshahi, in his first trip to Asia since becoming chief executive officer, made it clear that the ride-hailing company isn’t about to scale back its business to just countries where it already has a strong market position. During his first stop in Japan, he said he’s willing to forge partnerships with taxi companies in order to succeed, even though Uber has less 1% market share and only offers limited services there.

“I saw Japan as an incredible opportunity, and when I asked the team why wasn’t our Japan business larger, I started learning the history of our approach to Japan, and it was an approach that frankly didn’t work,” Khosrowshahi said in Tokyo on Tuesday. “It’s clear to me that we need to come in with partnership in mind, and in particular a partnership with the taxi industry here.”

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