Chinese Ride-Hailing App Didi Reopens Registration For New Users

After an investigation knocked its app down, Chinese authorities have allowed ride-hailing company Didi access to sign up new clients after 18 months.

This suggests that Beijing's campaign against the nation's internet giants is coming to an end as the administration attempts to boost economic growth, Financial Times writes.

Didi Is On Track To Make A Comeback

Almost 18 months after regulators ordered a halt to user enrolment, Didi Chuxing on Monday began new user registrations in the largest ride-hailing market in the world.

However, the Didi Chuxing app will now accept new user registrations again right away with the approval of the Cyber Security Review Office.

It can be remembered that Chinese authorities demanded that Didi be removed from the app stores in July 2021, citing the fact that the company was "illegally collecting user data."

Then, according to Tech Crunch, Didi went public in New York earlier that month, but the company's celebration over the event was fleeting.

It raised a sizable $4 billion from the initial offering, which turned out to be the cause of its dispute with Beijing.

Prior to going public in the US, where Chinese individuals' data may have been subject to examination, Didi failed to reassure the authorities that its cross-border data procedures were secure.

The error prompted China's top cyberspace authority to launch a security probe that lasted a year and a half.

"Our company has taken serious steps to cooperate with the country's cybersecurity review, deal with the security issues found in the probe, and implement comprehensive rectifications," Didi claims.

Additionally, the Beijing-based corporation promised to take strong action to protect the platform's infrastructure and large data as well as uphold national network security, South China Morning Post reports.

The Ride-Hailing App Will Be Treading With Caution In The Future

Didi was given permission to restart new user registration by the Cybersecurity Review Office, a relatively new entity created to address data security issues raised by online companies.

Furthermore, the company reportedly had to pay a $1 billion fine for breaking the guidelines in addition to undergoing a data overhaul.

With that, the regulatory steps severely impacted Didi's domestic operations and erased tens of billions of dollars from its market valuation, according to CNN Business.

Users of Didi were still able to use the app if they had had it installed on their phones prior to the reopening of user registration.

However, the Chinese app was surrounded by aggressive competitors in the market like AutoNavi, which is owned by Alibaba.

In recent years, China has tightened regulatory monitoring of the innovative industry, bringing it closer to parity with the conventional state-owned taxi sector.

Tech Crunch writes that Didi will undoubtedly be considerably more wary of the government's red line after the regulatory rewrite.

"Going forward, the company will apply effective methods to ensure the security of the platform's infrastructure and big data in order to safeguard national cybersecurity," it says in a statement.