Bulletins

Chinese ride-hailing giant DiDi reportedly begins 20% company-wide layoff

DiDi's layoff follows an industry pattern impacting almost all Chinese tech companies.

Phone with DiDi app

Chinese ride-hailing giant DiDi joins most Chinese tech companies in ordering massive layoffs.

Photo: Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Chinese ride-hailing giant DiDi, the subject of a listing-and-delisting fiasco last year, has begun a company-wide layoff that will affect about 20% of total employees, according to the Chinese tech publication LatePost. The report was supported by anonymous messages posted on a Chinese workplace discussion forum Maimai a few days earlier. DiDi did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the layoff.

As LatePost reported, the massive layoff will cover most teams at DiDi, including those working on ride-hailing, bike-share and freight transport. Team managers have recently received the layoff order and are expected to complete the process before the end of February. The only departments not affected are DiDi’s globalization unit and autonomous driving unit.

DiDi's layoffs follow an industry pattern described as 互联网寒冬 (a bitter winter for the internet industry) that pestered Chinese tech workers in the past few months. Almost all prominent Chinese tech companies, including ByteDance, Tencent and Alibaba, have instated varying levels of layoffs due to stricter tech regulations in the country.

According to DiDi’s June 2021 IPO prospectus, the company had over 15,000 employees by the end of 2020.

Zeyi Yang

Zeyi Yang is a former reporter with Protocol | China. Previously, he worked as a reporting fellow for the digital magazine Rest of World, covering the intersection of technology and culture in China and neighboring countries. He has also contributed to the South China Morning Post, Nikkei Asia, Columbia Journalism Review, among other publications. In his spare time, Zeyi co-founded a Mandarin podcast that tells LGBTQ stories in China. He has been playing Pokemon for 14 years and has a weird favorite pick.

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