China to allow Didi apps to go back online

Chinese authorities are ready to allow Didi Global apps to return to domestic digital stores as soon as next week, five sources told Reuters, in another sign that the regulator’s two-year crackdown on the tech sector it is coming to its end.

Didi has been waiting for authorities’ approval to resume new user registrations and downloads of its 25 banned apps in China as a key step to resume normal business since its regulatory woes began in mid-2021.

The lifting of the ban on new users and the resumption of apps for its flagship transportation services and other businesses could take place before the Lunar New Year, which begins on January 22, four of the sources said.

The one-week vacation period in China would help didi start attracting new customers for the business and work to get back on track, two of the sources added.

The lifting of the ban on the applications of didi It would come at a time when the Chinese authorities are trying to restore confidence in the private sector and are counting on the technology industry to help stimulate economic activity, which has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

China’s central bank will step up support for private companies as part of measures to prop up the economy, while easing crackdowns on tech companies, Guo Shuqing, head of China’s communist party, told state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday. People’s Bank of China.

Resetting the applications would also mean for didi the end of its year-and-a-half-long upgrade, and it would come after the powerful Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) fined the company $1.2 billion in July.

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

didi He did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The CAC and the State Council Information Office, which manages media inquiries for the government, did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The sanction to didi It is part of Beijing’s unprecedented offensive over the past two years against the country’s tech titans, which has slashed its value by hundreds of billions of dollars and slashed its revenues and profits.

Chinese regulators, led by the CAC, have in recent weeks restarted the approval process for the application of didiaccording to two of the sources and another person with knowledge of the matter.