Didi | A bump in the road

What was meant to be a moment of pride for one of China’s Internet giants turned, in a matter of days, into an epic car-crash. On June 30, the ride-hailing app Didi, which dominates the China market, raised $4.4 billion in its much anticipated listing on the New York Stock Exchange, the biggest Chinese listing since Alibaba raised a record $25 billion in 2014. Within a week, Didi would have not only lost more than one-fifth of its market value, but found itself facing the threat of lawsuits from angry U.S. investors as Chinese authorities, days after the IPO, said they were investigating the company over its use of data, citing privacy and national security concerns. The Cyberspace Administration of China, which is leading the battle to tame tech companies citing their use of personal data, is now considering “a new regulation requiring companies with more than 1 million users’ data to apply for a cybersecurity review before seeking listing overseas”, the Party-run Global Times reported. No Internet giant is allowed to become a super data base that has more personal data about the Chinese people than the country does.” China’s tech giants have seen “a combined $823 billion wiped from their market value since a February peak”, according to Bloomberg, coinciding with the raft of measures aimed at tightening control including anti-trust investigations.