Two days after DiDi listed in New York, China's internet regulator opened a cybersecurity review of the company. Two days after that, it ordered DiDi's app pulled from app stores. DiDi had just raised $4.4 billion at a value near $70 billion. It was China's dominant ride-hailing service, the company that had bought out Uber's China business five years earlier. Within a year it would leave the New York Stock Exchange.

Beating Uber at Home

Cheng Wei founded the company in Beijing in June 2012 as Didi Dache, a taxi-hailing app. It merged with its main rival, Kuaidi, in 2015. The bet was that China's huge cities and short supply of taxis would make ride-hailing a daily habit. DiDi spent heavily to win. In August 2016 it bought Uber's China business, and Uber took a stake in DiDi in return.

Listed, Then Delisted

DiDi priced its shares at $14 and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on June 30, 2021. The stock closed the first day up 1 percent. Days later regulators pulled its apps. In July 2022 they fined the company 8.026 billion yuan, about $1.2 billion. DiDi left the NYSE on June 13, 2022. Its shares now trade over the counter as DIDIY.

Cover: A Hong-Kong Sedan Chair; A Chinese School-Boy; A Chinese Girl; A Hong-Kong Coolie, John Thomson. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a hired sedan chair (a ride for hire in China).