Didi (China's Grab) banned in China

China’s cyberspace regulator ordered app stores to remove Didi Chuxing, dealing a major blow to a ride-hailing giant that just days ago pulled off one of the largest U.S. initial public offerings of the past decade.

The Cyberspace Administration of China announced the ban Sunday, citing serious violations on Didi Global Inc.’s collection and usage of personal information, without elaborating. That unusually swift decision came two days after the regulator said it was starting a cybersecurity review of the company.

That effectively requires the largest app stores in China, operated by the likes of Apple Inc. and smartphone makers Huawei Technologies Co. and Xiaomi Corp., to strike Didi from their offerings. But the current half-billion or so users can continue to order up rides and other services so long as they downloaded the app before Sunday’s order.

The surprise probe and rapid decision by China’s powerful internet regulator piles on the scrutiny of Didi over issues ranging from antitrust to data security. The company has been grappling with a broad antitrust probe into Chinese internet firms with uncertain outcomes for Didi and peers like major backer Tencent Holdings Ltd. It lost as much as 11% of its market value at one point on Friday, after the watchdog revealed its investigation.

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 online powerhouses from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to Tencent and Didi scoop up daily from hundreds of millions of users. The regulator on Sunday ordered Didi to rectify its problems following legal requirements and national standards, and take steps to protect the personal information of its users.

China’s E-Hailing Giant DiDi Files For IPO; Valuation Could Double That Of Grab

China’s largest e-hailing company, Didi Chuxing, has filed to be publicly listed in the US through an IPO (initial public offering) that could be the biggest this year. Indeed, the firm could end up with a valuation that is more than double that of Grab – the Southeast Asian giant that we’re all more familiar with.

Sources previously told Reuters that the IPO could aim for a valuation close to US$100 billion (~RM410.8 billion). And according to a Bloomberg report in April, the company was looking into a valuation of as much as US$70 billion (~RM287.6 billion) to US$100 billion. That would easily beat Alibaba’s US$25 billion (~RM102.7 billion) IPO in 2014 – the largest achieved by a Chinese company listing in the US.

As a comparison, Grab is going public in a SPAC deal worth US$39.6 billion (RM 163.7 billion) – the largest of its kind on record. For more information on what SPACs and IPOs are, you can refer to this piece. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that Didi has a substantially larger pool of potential customers (China, etc.) than Grab (Southeast Asia).

According to Reuters, Didi CEO Cheng Wei said last year that the company wants to have 800 million monthly active users worldwide and complete 100 million orders a day by 2022 – this includes e-hailing, bike and food delivery orders.

Grab, on the other hand, often touts the total population of Southeast Asia (currently 650 million) as its potential customers. As you can see, the difference is pretty staggering.