BEIJING, May 6, 2015 (AFP) - Chinese authorities have visited a second office of Internet taxi-hailing service Uber, an official said Wednesday, widening an apparent crackdown on the controversial company.
Police “visited” Uber’s offices in the southwestern city of Chengdu “to get some information”, an official at the city’s transport commission told AFP, without giving her name.
Pictures posted online showed about 12 uniformed officers in an unidentifiable building, with netizens describing it as the Uber office in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.
The visit comes after another Uber office in Guangzhou was raided last Thursday.
Uber currently operates in nine cities across China, including the capital Beijing and financial hub Shanghai.
The US-based company helps put customers in touch with private drivers as an alternative to traditional taxis.
It has become the focus of global controversy and is facing legal challenges and limits on its activities.
Taxi companies claim Uber drivers should be regulated in the same way as normal cabs and are leading the campaign against the service, which has a small but growing market share in China.
The popularity of private-car booking enterprises such as Uber and China’s dominant taxi-hailing apps Kuaidi Dache and Didi Dache has soared in China, where traditional taxis are criticised for poor service with rude drivers who routinely ignore customers on the street.
Chinese search engine Baidu, the country’s equivalent of Google, said in December it had purchased a stake in Uber.
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