• by Larissa Faw , January 4, 2018

Zenith has been awarded media responsibilities for China’s DiDi Chuxing, which bills itself as the world's largest ride-hailing company. The assignment came after a review. It is widely acknowledged that DiDi and Uber are the two largest global players in the space.

The Publicis Groupe-owned agency will develop a bespoke agency — D+Z — to oversee the account's media planning and buying across both traditional and digital media.

Previously, several agencies had been working with DiDi on a project-by-project basis with the pitch called in order to consolidate media under one group.

Zenith's analytical background helped to win the account, says a DiDi spokesperson. Adds Bertilla Teo, CEO, Publicis Media Greater China: "Our team was able to demonstrate strong understanding of consumers across China’s tiers."

The company provides transportation services for more than 450 million users across 400+ cities in China, with headquarters in Beijing. DiDi services include taxi hailing, private car hailing, Hitch (social ride-sharing), DiDi Chauffeur, DiDi Bus, DiDi Car Rental, DiDi Enterprise Solutions, DiDi Minibus, DiDi Luxe and bike-sharing to users in China via a smartphone application.

Earlier this week, the Uber competitor announced it was acquiring 99 — the main Brazilian rival to Uber and a company in which Didi already holds a stake — for around $600 million, per The New York Times.