(Reuters) – China’s biggest ride-hailing firm Didi Global Inc said on Sunday removal of its “DiDi Chuxing” app from smartphone app stores in China is expected to have an adverse impact on its revenue in China.
Earlier on Sunday, China’s cyberspace regulator ordered app stores to stop offering Didi’s app after finding that the company had illegally collected users’ personal data.
“The Company expects that the app takedown may have an adverse impact on its revenue in China,” the company said in a statement.
In its filing https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1764757/000104746921001194/a2243272zf-1.htm from June, Didi reported revenue of about 42.2 billion yuan ($6.52 billion) for the three months ended March 31. Of that, 39.2 billion yuan came from China mobility division while about 800 million yuan came from international business.
Didi has a dominant position in the online ride-hailing business in China and operates in 4,000 locations across 16 countries.
Didi said it will strive to rectify any problems, and will protect users’ privacy and data security.
The company also said once the app is taken down from app stores, new users will no longer be able to download the app in China, although existing users who had installed the app prior to the takedown may continue using it.
The takedown comes days after Didi made its trading debut on New York Stock Exchange having raised $4.4 billion in an initial public offering.
A senior Didi executive said Saturday company stores all China user and roads data at servers in the country and it is “absolutely not possible” that it passed data to the United States.
($1 = 6.4721 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft)
