Two years ago, a fateful meeting between Cheng Wei, who today is chairman of China’s car-hailing hegemon Didi Chuxing, and Travis Kalanick, chief executive of San Francisco-based Uber, set the tone for a rivalry that would shake China’s internet industry. While Uber described the meeting as “super friendly”, Mr Cheng had a different take.

According to him, Mr Kalanick issued an ultimatum: sell Uber 40 per cent of Mr Cheng’s company, known as Didi Dache at the time, or else face “embarrassing defeat” in an expensive price war.

That meeting set the tone for two years of intense competition, intermingled with extended haggling. It ended on Monday, when Uber got exactly half of the stake that Mr Kalanick, in his hubris, had originally envisioned: 20 per cent in Didi Chuxing, the company which has come to dominate car hailing in China, and has just seen off its latest opponent.