The Chinese equivalent of Uber is expanding into US cities

The taxi protests in major European cities may be the least of Uber’s problems soon. A new competitor is about to start operating in its stomping grounds in two huge markets, New York City and San Francisco, and it offers a unique business model that will cater to a very specific population, perhaps wooing potential customers away from Uber and taxis alike. The company is called Yongche and it the goal is to provide drivers who are fluent in Mandarin to pick up customers landing at airports. It’s a brilliant idea; international travelers who can’t speak English will be able to hail a cab from Yongche and can be taken comfortably to any destination, speaking fluent Mandarin the whole time. According to Bloomberg, the launch in San Francisco and New York will be followed by Boston and Los Angeles.

Yongche.com, China’s largest mobile car-sharing service, is preparing to challenge Uber Technologies Inc. on its home turf of San Francisco and New York. The Beijing-based company plans to add the two U.S. cities to the 57 in China and Hong Kong where its ride-sharing app is already available. To differentiate its service, Yongche will provide Mandarin-speaking drivers so that Chinese travelers arriving at places such as John F. Kennedy Airport can get to their destinations without phrase books and awkward gesticulations. “Most Chinese don’t speak English and find it difficult to communicate with foreign drivers after they land in another country,” Herman Zhou, 41, founder and chief executive officer of China’s largest mobile car-sharing service, said in an interview in Beijing this week. “We will have Chinese-speaking drivers in the U.S. and other places to make it seamless and stress-free.” Yongche, whose Chinese name means “easy arrival” in Mandarin, is among the growing number of car services worldwide seeking to emulate the success of San Francisco-based Uber, which is valued at $17 billion based on its latest financing. While taxi drivers across Europe escalate their opposition to such services, Yongche’s CEO is so confident about the future — Chinese outbound travelers reached almost 100 million last year — that he forecast his company will be valued as much as Uber in a couple of years.