Before answering the questions, please read the case below. China had been attracting many multi-national companies from across the world and ride-sharing service providers were no exception. In 2014, for every 1000 people, there were only 113 cars in China and despite having efficient public transport systems, there still persisted an extremely high demand for cab-sharing services.

Soon after entering China, Uber adjusted and adapted its strategies to meet the needs and trends of Chinese markets. In general, Uber's business model relied mainly on being the first entrant to a market, and then rapidly scaling up to put its competitors at a disadvantage to the point of a forced exit. Thus, by being first to a market, it offered subsidies to drivers and cheap rides to passengers and generated a rapid scale. Increasing the number of passengers further attracted more and more drivers to receive more fares. This model made it difficult for the late entrants to attract passengers without drivers being there to provide a competitive service level. In China, Uber entered the market when competitors were already established, and therefore, lost its first-mover advantage. Further, Uber also believed that China was very different from other markets. As the CEO of Uber once said, "it is just different than everywhere else[...]. Then, so, you cannot take your pattern or your model for other places and take that to China. You just cannot. You have to do it differently." With this thought, Uber modified its existing strategies.

As soon as Uber entered China, it realized that it had to change its core product. When Uber started its business in China, it included a credit card system where customers had to validate credit card information before opening an account on its app. However, many potential Chinese users were not comfortable with sharing their credit card information. Considering it as a major obstacle, Uber added another option of payment through Alipay - a China-based third-party online payment platform. Alipay was the most common payment method used in the country, which Uber adopted to operate in China.

Uber in all of its markets used Google Maps to locate and match customers with drivers. However, in China, the coverage of Google Maps was extremely limited and inaccurate. Thus, Uber had to redesign its software and switch its mapping partner. In December 2014, Uber entered into a strategic partnership with an economically powerful and politically connected company, Baidu. It was the first time Uber used local offerings for maps. Baidu Maps were as popular in China as Google Maps were in the USA. Under the terms of the partnership, Baidu invested in Uber's China operations, while enabling the users of Baidu Map and Mobile Baidu, to connect easily with Uber drivers. Uber planned to leverage Baidu's strengths in mobile search and mapping through this partnership. For the Chinese market, Uber installed some special servers to prevent and protect its operations from getting disrupted.

Uber had one big competitor in China, namely Didi, which occupied the biggest chunk of the market share of the country's taxi-hailing market. Established in 2012, Didi had wider coverage with multiple lines of business including taxi, private car service, ride and designated driving services. Thus, being a comprehensive one-stop consumer transportation platform, Didi became a great challenge for Uber. Within threeyears of its inception, Didi established a large scale of users, attracting more drivers to receive orders at any time within a closer distance.

Didi accounted for 83.2 per cent share of active users of private car-hailing apps against Uber's 16.2 per cent market share. The overall volume of Didi Taxi grew to as large as 10 times of Uber with the financial support of some of the biggest Chinese companies such as Tencent and Alibaba. In 2015, Didi had arranged 1.4 billion rides in China, more than what Uber had managed worldwide.

Didi tempted its drivers who wanted to buy new cars by offering car loans. For passengers, Didi's app let them book test drives of new cars on behalf of carmakers such as Mercedes and Audi.

Didi enjoyed another advantage over Uber when half a billion users of the Chinese messaging app - WeChat were given the option of calling a Didi cab via the app. Initially, Didi gave its riders an option to pay in cash, which came as a great convenience to Chinese but later, it incorporated WeChat's payment system, which by that time had become hugely popular among Chinese users. WeChat even blocked Uber from using its app, hurting the ride-hailing company's business. Uber had made a similar arrangement with Facebook but the Facebook app was blocked by the Chinese Government. Uber, being a late entrant, was at disadvantage in China as its competitor got enough time to develop strong links with some very strong companies of China like internet giants Alibaba and Tencent.

Amidst fierce competition and unfavorable national regulations passed by the government of China, Uber finally surrendered in the country. On August 01, 2016, the regional subsidiary of Uber announced its merger with its biggest and major rival in the country - Didi in a mega-merger of $35 bn.

Each question should be answered using several paragraphs. Describe Uber's globalization strategy into the Chinese market using the Integration-Responsiveness Framework, and what are the pros and cons of that strategy in the case of Uber in China .