China’s cyberspace regulator ordered app stores to remove Didi Chuxing from their list of offerings, citing serious violations on the ride-hailing company’s collection and usage of personal information.
The Cyberspace Administration of China announced the move on Sunday, July 4, just two days after it said it was starting a cybersecurity review of the company. It ordered Didi to rectify its problems following legal requirements and national standards, and effectively protect the personal information security of its users.
Didi Global Inc had only started trading on Wednesday, June 30 in New York after a US$4.4 billion initial public offering, pulling off one of the biggest US stock market debuts of the past decade. It lost as much as 11% of its market value at one point on Friday, July 2.
Didi didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the regulator’s move outside of business hours. The company had said it would halt new user registrations during the probe.
The surprise probe by China’s internet regulator had piled on the scrutiny of Didi over issues ranging from antitrust to data security. The company has been grappling with a broad antitrust probe into China’s internet firms with uncertain outcomes for Didi and peers like major backer Tencent Holdings.
More broadly, Beijing has been curbing the growing influence of China’s largest internet corporations, widening an effort to tighten the ownership and handling of troves of information that internet giants from Alibaba Group Holding to Tencent and Didi scoop up daily from hundreds of millions of users.
