The Chinese taxi aggregator DiDi will leave the Russian and Kazakh markets on March 4, Interfax reports, citing Irina Gushchina, PR director of the service. The company launched the service in Kazan in August 2020, and then Didi began to expand to other regions of the country.
Gushchina notes that the reason for the curtailment of the company's activities were changes in market conditions and other difficulties. In this regard, DiDi will not be able to provide better results in Russia and Kazakhstan.
The company has already informed its drivers about the imminent closure of the service.
DiDi will continue to operate in Latin America, as well as in some countries in the Middle East, Africa and the Pacific region.
In early February, the Eurasian Economic Commission accused DiDi, Yandex, Gett, Citymobil and Bolt of conspiring to set and maintain consistent prices in the taxi market. If the FAS Russia finds violations, companies will face a fine of 15% of their revenue.
At the end of last year, the Financial Times reported that DiDi's revenue fell by $6.3 billion in nine months. These losses are associated with the actions of Chinese regulators, which prohibit the company from IPO in New York without the permission of the Chinese authorities.
At the end of December 2021, DiDi announced its intention to enter the Moscow market at the beginning of 2022. At that time, the company was present in 37 Russian cities.
In mid-December, Uber announced that it would sell its stake in DiDi, citing market opacity in China. Uber left China in 2016, unable to compete with DiDi. An American company sold assets to a Chinese aggregator in exchange for a stake.
Last summer, the taxi service Maxim filed a complaint with the Federal Antimonopoly Service accusing DiDi of price dumping. However, in September, the antimonopolists did not see any signs of unfair competition.
In mid-summer, the National Taxi Council Association complained to Putin about DiDi. Fifty companies accused the Chinese aggregator that its application has access to the personal data of officials and law enforcement officers who use DiDi services.
bbabo.Net