Didi, the Chinese Ride-Hailing Giant, Makes Its Debut on Wall Street

In April, Didi was one of nearly three dozen Chinese internet companies that were hauled before regulators and ordered to ensure their compliance with antimonopoly rules and to “put the nation’s interests first.”

Didi promptly issued a statement, which the antitrust regulator published on its website, vowing to “promote the development and prosperity of socialist culture and science” and to strictly obey the law.

Didi Dache was founded in Beijing in 2012 and merged with a Chinese rival, Kuaidi Dache, in 2015 to form Didi Chuxing. Although Uber tried to compete in the Chinese market, it eventually sold its Chinese operations to Didi in exchange for a stake in the company.

In a filing for its I.P.O., Didi said that revenues declined 8 percent to $21.63 billion last year because of the pandemic. Didi lost $1.6 billion last year, though it reported a profit of $30 million in the first quarter of this year.

Although Didi is dominant in China and operates in 14 other countries, including Australia, Brazil, Mexico and Russia, its valuation is notably smaller than Uber’s $95 billion. Still, it dwarfs Lyft, the second largest ride-hailing company in the United States, which is valued at nearly $20 billion.

Didi said that it had the ability to continue to grow as it expands its business to new international markets. “We aspire to become a truly global technology company,” Didi’s founders, Cheng Wei and Jean Liu, wrote in a letter included with the filing.

Didi was valued at $56 billion in 2017, and its investors include SoftBank of Japan; Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi state fund; Alibaba and Tencent, China’s two main internet Goliaths; and Apple, which invested $1 billion in 2016 to show its support for the Chinese market.