Didi gets nod for new user registration

Didi Global Inc said it resumed new user registration for its ride-hailing app on Monday, after the Beijing-based company was granted approval from China's Cyberspace Security Review Office.

The move came after China sent positive signals in support of the development of platform companies after two years of healthy industry corrections in the sector.

Didi said in a statement on social networking platform Weibo that over the past year, the company has cooperated with the national network security review, seriously treated the security problems found in the review and carried out comprehensive rectifications.

Didi added that in the future it will take effective measures to ensure the security of its platform facilities and data, as well as safeguard national cybersecurity.

Shen Meng, director of investment bank Chanson & Co, said Didi resuming registration of new users is a positive signal that the company is returning to the market.

Didi was fined more than 8 billion yuan ($1.19 billion) in July for illegally collecting information and other practices that violated the Cybersecurity Law, the Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law.

Shen said China's platform economy is expected to usher in a new round of healthy development.

Last month, the tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference said platform companies will be supported to "fully display their capabilities" in bolstering economic growth, job creation and global competitiveness.

That marked a shift from previous remarks. At the 2020 Central Economic Work Conference, the central authorities pledged to prevent the "disorderly expansion of capital". In 2021, the conference maintained that the country should set red and green lights for capital market activity in order to prevent unbridled growth.

Several authorities, including the top securities regulator and the central bank, also recently ramped up calls to support and facilitate the development of platform companies.

The moves are also part of China's broader push to support the development of private enterprises. Private companies have contributed about 50 percent of the country's tax revenue, 60 percent of gross domestic product, 70 percent of technological innovation and 80 percent of urban employment, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Qi Xiangdong, chairman of Chinese cybersecurity company Qi-Anxin Technology Group, said private enterprises are an important force in helping pursue the Chinese path to modernization, and the company will work to beef up its innovation capabilities.

"I care most about key projects in the digital economy in 2023, which will have an immediate impact on stabilizing economic growth," said Qi, who is also vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.