The battle for Chinese passengers intensified after Alibaba-backed taxi-hailing app Kuaidi Dache raised roughly $600m in fresh capital from Japanese telecommunications group SoftBank and existing shareholders.

曾获阿里巴巴(Alibaba)投资的打车应用快的打车(Kuaidi Dache)，从日本电信集团软银(SoftBank)及现有股东处，募集了大约6亿美元的新一轮资金，从而令打车应用对中国乘客的争夺战进一步加剧。

Softbank’s investment in Kuaidi Dache together with Alibaba and Tiger Global Management was the latest in its spending spree, which includes a $250m stake in GrabTaxi, a Southeast Asian Uber-style taxi hailing app, announced last month. The company also led a $210m investment in Ola Cabs, an Indian taxi app.

和软银一同参与这轮投资的，还有阿里巴巴和老虎环球基金(Tiger Global Management)。

“Their investment and expertise will enable us to greatly broaden our market reach,” Lu Chuanwei, chief executive of Kuaidi Dache, said in a statement on Thursday.

周四，快的打车首席执行官吕传伟在一份声明中表示：“他们的资金和技术将令我们能极大程度地拓宽市场。”

Masayoshi Son, SoftBank chief executive, has promised to invest further in what he called a “massive wave of internet revolution” in the Asia region.

尽管为了保护受到严格监管的出租车行业，中国监管机构对打车应用一直采取打压态度，中国互联网集团腾讯(Tencent)、阿里巴巴和百度(Baidu)还是一直在加大对智能手机打车应用的投资力度，试图以此扩大他们的用户基数。

Chinese internet groups Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu have all been ramping up investment in smartphone taxi apps in an effort to expand their user base even as the country’s regulators crack down to protect China’s heavily regulated taxi industry.

对这些互联网公司来说，这么做的回报不仅仅是赢得了出租车客户。这些公司还希望，这么做能鼓励这些客户更多地使用它们的在线支付系统，该系统是移动业务中盈利最丰厚的领域之一。

The prize is more than just taxi customers for the internet companies, which are hoping to encourage greater use of their online payment systems, one of the most lucrative mobile businesses.

根据研究机构易观国际(Analysys International)的数据，2014年第三季度快的打车在中国占有54.4%的市场份额，而腾讯投资的滴滴打车(Didi Dache)则占有44.9%的市场份额。

Kuaidi Dache (“Speedy taxi”) had 54.4 per cent market share in China as of the third quarter, while Tencent-backed Didi Dache (“Honk Honk Taxi”) had 44.9 per cent market, according to Analysys International, a research group.

去年，美国打车应用公司优步(Uber)也加入了这一战团。7月，该公司在北京推出了打车服务。在此之前，该公司还曾在上海、广州和深圳公开亮相。上个月，总部驻北京的搜索引擎公司百度(Baidu)曾买入优步未公开数量的股份。目前，在最新一轮的12亿美元融资过程中，优步的估值达到400亿美元。

US car-hailing company Uber joined the race last year with the launch of its service in Beijing in July, following earlier rollouts in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Last month Baidu, the Beijing-based search engine, took an undisclosed stake in Uber, which was valued at $40bn in its latest $1.2bn funding round.

据报道，2014年12月滴滴打车曾在新一轮融资中筹得7亿美元，从而令该公司估值达到数十亿美元。

Didi Dache reportedly raised $700m in fresh financing in December, which would also value the company in the billions of dollars.

尽管打车软件增长十分迅速，中国打车软件市场却依然充满不确定性。最近，中国政府曾在全国范围发布禁令，禁止私家车主通过手机应用提供未经许可的出租车服务。

Despite the fast pace of growth, the outlook for the car-hailing market in China remains uncertain, after the government recently implemented a nationwide ban on drivers of private cars offering unlicensed taxi services via mobile-phone apps.