BEIJING: Didi Global, China’s largest ride-hailing company, said on Sunday (July 4) that the withdrawal of its DiDi Chuxing app from Chinese smartphone app stores will have a negative impact on its revenue. After discovering that Didi had illegally acquired users’ personal data, China’s cyberspace authority ordered app retailers to stop distributing the program.
“The Company expects the app shutdown to have a negative impact on its revenue in China,” it stated in a statement.
In China, the Didi app has been suspended because to data security concerns.
The withdrawal of Didi’s app, which has no effect on existing customers, comes only days after Didi’s initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange raised US$4.4 billion.
Didi recorded revenue of 42.2 billion yuan (US$6.5 billion) for the three months ending March 31 in a June filing. Its China mobility section contributed 39.2 billion yuan, while its foreign business contributed roughly 800 million yuan.
Didi holds a commanding position in China’s online ride-hailing market, with 4,000 outlets in 16 countries.
Didi stated that it will work to resolve any issues and that consumers’ privacy and data security will be protected.
Chinese Internet regulators have been slamming the country’s tech behemoths for breaking the laws since late last year.
Didi’s apparent “big data analysis” capabilities, according to the Global Times, a tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily newspaper, could pose hazards to the security of individuals’ personal information, according to a Chinese-language commentary published on Monday.
“No Internet behemoth can be permitted to become a super database of Chinese people’s personal information with more specifics than the country, and these businesses cannot be allowed to utilize the data in any way they choose,” the Global Times reported.
Didi collects massive volumes of real-time mobility data on a daily basis. It makes use of some of the information for autonomous driving and traffic analysis. “We follow strict protocols in collecting, sending, storing, and using user data pursuant to our data security and privacy rules,” Didi wrote in its IPO prospectus. On Saturday, a top Didi executive stated that the business retains all China user and road data on Chinese servers and that it is “absolutely not possible” for the company to send data to the US./n
