Uber under

Uber faces a competition pile-up in Asia

Uber's quest for global dominance faces a pile-up in Asia. The taxi-hailing app may be a Silicon Valley darling but is an underdog in China and India, its two most important overseas markets. The growing anti-Uber alliance calls the group's reported $51 billion valuation into question.

The company founded by Travis Kalanick faces a fierce fight in China, where it is up against Didi Kuaidi, created from the merger of two local rivals. Didi, which is backed by internet giants Alibaba and Tencent, processes many more trips in China than Uber, which is facing regulatory hurdles. The local start-up raised $2 billion in July and continues to seek new financing.

In India, Uber is up against Ola Cabs, which reckons it books four times as many trips a day as its US rival. Japan's SoftBank is Ola's largest investor. Uber's unlisted competitors in China and India already have a combined value of around $20 billion.

It will be hard for Uber to catch up. The company has attracted local backing from the likes of Chinese search company Baidu and India's Tata Group. But these investors are unlikely to splash as much cash on the sector as Uber's competitors. That matters as all the signs are that Uber is offering bigger subsidies per trip in an effort to attract drivers and passengers.

A new worry is that Didi is now helping to fund Uber's main rival in Southeast Asia, Singapore-headquartered GrabTaxi. The alliance may even be a prelude to a merger further down the line. The companies already have some common investors, notably SoftBank.

Uber hasn't stalled just yet. It has hired a president for its Indian operations and is looking to do the same in China. In June, it launched a fundraising round specifically for China. Turning its largest emerging markets into separately-funded entities would allow Uber to give local partners a bigger say. But it would also dilute the long-term global growth potential required to support the company's soaring private valuation. Ultimately, Uber's fate in Asia may depend on whether there is room for two taxi-apps to co-exist in a single market. It must be hoping that the winner doesn't take all.