Apple CEO Tim Cook spent part of his eighth visit to China as the head of the company to take the president of ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing around an Apple Store. Cook took Liu Qing on a tour of one of Beijing's stores, just days after an announcement was made that Apple made an investment of approximately
$1 billion in the firm, which is the dominant ride service in the region by a considerable margin.
Cook also took the time to meet a number of app developers at the store, with Liu moderating the panel,
reports China Daily. Speaking to executives from Stan Xu, Tap4Fun, and Meitu, Cook noted "China-based developers have now earned over $7 billion, and what is more impressive, over half of that came in the past 12 months alone. The momentum is quite strong."
Speaking on the subject of the Didi Chuxing investment, Cook advised it was "because Didi has a very great management team and its objective is also environmental, hoping to reduce pollution by making more efficient use of cars." Cook previously said the deal could help Apple "learn about certain segments of the China market," suggesting there could be other opportunities for collaboration between the two companies in the future.
The report notes that it is unknown if Cook will end up taking time to speak to
government officials over regulatory issues affecting Apple's business in the country. Last month, both the iTunes Movies and iBooks stores in China were
forced to close by a regulator, believed to be an attempt to increase control over foreign media.
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