Didi says it stores all Chinese user and road data in China Reuters

Authors: Scott Murdoch and Yilei Sun

Hong Kong/Beijing (Reuters)-Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global stores all Chinese user and road data on servers in the country. It is “absolutely impossible” for the company to transmit data to the United States, a company executive said on Saturday.

Li Min, vice president of Didi, also stated that the company will sue any social media users who claim that the company filed a claim on China’s Twitter-like Weibo (NASDAQ:) platform during its recent initial public offering (IPO). transfer data.

Just two days after Didi started listing on the New York Stock Exchange, the China Cyberspace Administration of China announced on Friday that it had launched an investigation into Didi to protect national security and public interest.

The news of the China Cyberspace Administration of China’s investigation and the agency’s decision to prevent Didi from registering new users during the investigation caused Beijing-based Didi’s share price to fall 5% on Friday.

“Like many Chinese companies listed overseas, Didi stores all domestic user data on servers in China, and it is absolutely impossible to transmit the data to the United States,” Li said in a post on Weibo.

Didi provides services in China and more than 15 international markets, and collects massive amounts of real-time mobile data every day. It uses some data for autonomous driving technology and traffic analysis.

The company was founded by Will Cheng in 2012 and has faced regulatory investigations in China regarding safety and operating permits.

“I’m not sure what the final impact might be, but even before the listing, regulatory crackdowns have been an ongoing concern. Didi has been called by regulators twice,” said Sumeet Singh, research director of Aequitas, who published an article on Smartkarma. , On Saturday, told Reuters before Li’s post.

“It shouldn’t be much harm to prevent the company from absorbing new users this time, because the company already has more than 80% of the market share, as long as it doesn’t extend for a while.”

The cyberspace agency did not specify how long the investigation will last, nor did it provide any other details.

Didi said on Friday that it plans to conduct a comprehensive review of cyber security risks and will fully cooperate with relevant government departments. It also stated that it is operating normally, except for the suspension of new user registration in China.