$12 billion to blow on growth, wow, it makes Uber look like small potatoes. After curb stomping Kalanick in China, Didi has become, like, the Mechagodzilla of

$12 billion to blow on growth, wow, it makes Uber look like small potatoes. After curb stomping Kalanick in China, Didi has become, like, the Mechagodzilla of global rideshare. There are 4 big ones: Ola, Grab, Uber and Didi. Masayoshi Son has billion+ bets on all of them. The future is in the developing world, where secure cashless transactions, sophisticated transportation logistics, and accountability are all relatively new phenomena. Who is going to win the race to colonize and civilize the fractured and feudal world of Hodge Podge megapolitan transportation logistics? SoftBank don't care, it believes in demographics, there'll be 2 billion more people coming into the world over the next quarter century and almost all will live in fast growing cities where infrastructure can't keep up. The population of Karachi grew 80% between 2000 and 2010, to 20 million. Try to picture that happening to your city. Where cash strapped regional governments are completely overwhelmed well-heeled privateers are stepping in with Darwinian solutions. On my last trip to Indo I counted 21 people in a pickup truck, 5 in the cabin and 16 in the back.