Uber plans $1b China investment

Taxi hailing app Uber plans to invest seven billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in China, the Financial Times reported on its website, citing a company email.

The paper said it obtained the message sent to Uber investors this week by its CEO Travis Kalanick.

The FT posted a copy of the email file in a hyperlink within the article.

"Given our recent success in the region and substantial market share gains, we are planning to invest over 7 billion RMB (over $1 billion) in China in 2015 alone," the email said, referring to renminbi, another name for the Chinese currency.

Uber riders were making almost 1 million trips per day with business doubling in the last month, the email added.

It also said that Uber is operating in 11 cities in China, and over the next year plans to begin operations in 50 of the more than 80 Chinese cities that have populations of more than five million people.