China permitting Didi apps back online in the latest indication of regulatory thaw, sources declare

January 16, 2023: Chinese authorities are allowing Didi Global’s ride-hailing and different apps back on domestic app stores as soon as in the previous week, five sources told Reuters, in yet one more signal that their two-year regulatory crackdown on the technology sector has come to an end.

Didi is awaiting authorities’ approval to start new user registrations and downloads of its 25 is banning apps in China as a critical step to continue regular business since its regulatory troubles started in mid-2021.

The lifting of the recent user ban and app resumption for its flagship ride-hailing services and different business could occur before the Lunar New Year, which begins on January 22, said four sources.

The one-week-long holiday in China would help Didi attract recent clients for the business and work towards which brings it back to normal, added two sources.

A release of the ban on Didi apps is coming as Chinese policymakers seek to restore private sector confidence and count on the technology industry to help spur economic activity ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic.

China’s central bank resolved to step up support for private firms to shore up the economy, which eases a crackdown on tech companies. Guo Shuqing, Communist party chief of the People’s Bank of China, told state-owned CCTV on Sunday.

A restoration of apps would signal Didi’s completion of its one-year-and-a-half-long regulatory-driven revamp and will come after the powerful cyber watchdog Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) imposed a $1.2 billion fine on the company in July.

Didi already paid the fine last year, the most significant regulatory penalty imposed on a Chinese tech firm since Alibaba Group and Meituan were fined $2.75 billion and $527 million in 2021 by the antitrust regulator State Administration for Market Regulation, said two of the sources.

The penalty on Didi was part of Beijing’s sweeping and unusual crackdown on the country’s technology titans over more than the past two years. It has cut hundreds of billions of dollars off their values and shrunk revenues and profits.

Chinese regulators, which leads by the CAC, have in recent weeks restarted to push forward with Didi’s app resumption approval process, said two of the authorities and another reference with knowledge of the matter.

The regulators, who submitted a report on the matter to the top party leaders, look to formally get the latter’s nod in the next few days, two of them added.