Uber is burning through more than a billion dollars a year in Chinese market as it wages a fierce price war against local rival Didi Kuaidi, according to its chief executive Travis Kalanick.

Last month, Uber's Chinese business boosted its valuation to more than $8 billion following a latest round of fund raising. However, it has not achieved profitability in China due to fierce competition.

"We're profitable in the USA, but we're losing over $1 billion a year in China," Uber CEO Travis Kalanick told Canadian technology platform Betakit.

"We have a fierce competitor that's unprofitable in every city they exist in, but they're buying up market share. I wish the world wasn't that way," he added.

Uber China said in an emailed statement that Didi Kuaidi had to spend "many multiples" more than the U.S. company to increase its share of the market, adding that Uber's China business was backed up by profitable operations outside the region.

While a spokesman for Didi Kuaidi, which has the biggest market share of China's car-hailing app market, told Reuters that Uber's claims about its spending were untrue and that it is benefiting from its larger size.

He added that the Chinese company now operates in 400 cities and had passed break-even point in half of those cities.

Uber currently operates in more than 40 Chinese cities and plans to be in 100 by the end of the year.