Didi wins okay to relaunch apps as China tech crackdown ebbs

Bloomberg

Didi Global Inc. has secured the green light to resume signing up new users, suggesting the worst is over for a ride-hailing giant that symbolized Beijing’s bruising campaign to rein in its powerful internet industry.
The widely anticipated decision is one of the clearest signs yet that Xi Jinping’s administration, keen to jumpstart an economy that’s sagged under three years of Covid Zero restrictions, sees a need for private sector’s support in that broader campaign.
Beijing is again allowing Didi to bring in new users for the first time since regulators removed its main apps from stores in 2021, the company said in a statement on its official Weibo page. That suggests the services will soon return to Apple and Android stores.
Didi, once feted as the national champion that drove Uber Technologies Inc. out of China, was among the highest-profile companies at the heart of a clampdown on the internet industry that Beijing initiated in 2020, when it abruptly halted Ant Group Co.’s IPO. Regulators cracked down on Didi’s business in 2021 after the company pushed ahead with a $4 billion-plus US initial public offering against Beijing’s wishes.
Relaunching the apps is a prerequisite for Didi to resume business as usual, and to eventually work toward listing its stock in Hong Kong. It also suggests the government is serious about easing up on giants from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to Tencent Holdings Ltd., including by approving the most significant crop of blockbuster titles since clamping down on gaming addiction.
“The relaunch of Didi apps supports earlier indications from Beijing that required reforms within local technology sector are near-completion,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Catherine Lim said. “Disruptions to the operations of tech giants such as Alibaba, Tencent should be minimal in 2023.”
It’s unclear when Didi’s apps would actually reappear for download. One possibility is they could emerge just before the typically busy Lunar New Year celebrations, when rides usually peak.
The return of Didi’s apps would be a milestone in Beijing’s preparations to loosen its grip on the country’s giant internet sector. Guo Shuqing, party secretary of the People’s Bank of China, said this month the regulatory overhaul was drawing to a close.