Ride-hailing giant Didi Global narrows losses despite China’s cybersecurity fine, Covid-19, as overseas business grows

Name: Why China is tightening control over cybersecurity
Uploaded: 2023-04-29T08:00:19.000Z
Duration: 7 min 30 s
Description: Why China is tightening control over cybersecurity

The Beijing-based company has released its first annual report since it delisted from the New York Stock Exchange last year

Net loss declined 52 per cent to 23.8 billion yuan, even as revenue fell 19 per cent to 140.8 billion yuan, as users took fewer rides

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A pedestrian walks past the headquarters for Didi Global in Beijing. Photo: AP Photo

Xinmei Shen

Published: 4:00pm, 29 Apr 2023

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global saw its net loss narrow by more than half last year despite the impact of intermittent Covid-19 outbreaks and an unprecedented fine imposed by the country’s cybersecurity regulators.

The Beijing-based company posted a net loss of 23.8 billion yuan (US$3.44 billion) for 2022, down 52 per cent from 49.3 billion yuan in 2021, according to its first annual report filed since it delisted from the New York Stock Exchange last year.

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Why China is tightening control over cybersecurity

Revenue declined 19 per cent to 140.8 billion yuan in 2022 from 173.8 billion yuan in the previous year, as users in China took fewer rides during Covid-19 outbreaks in the second and fourth quarter, Didi said.

The company’s adjusted Ebitda from its mainland operations also took a hit from the 8.026 billion yuan fine levied on the firm last July by the Cyberspace Administration of China over data violations. It followed a year-long investigation into Didi that kicked off just days after the firm held an initial public offering in New York in the summer of 2021.

Partly because of the fine, Didi’s China mobility segment last year recorded a 1.5 billion yuan adjusted loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, compared with 6.1 billion yuan adjusted earnings in 2021, the company said in its report.

While the fine was announced last summer, Didi was only able to resume registrations of new users and make its main app available for download again in China in January this year, nearly 18 months after it was ordered to halt customer enrolment in line with the probe.

The Didi ride-hailing app seen on a smartphone in Shanghai. Photo: Bloomberg

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