Following the recent order to take down “DDT” in the name of “national security”, the Chinese authorities have taken down 25 applications of the parent company DDT on the 9th. The Chinese authorities have taken down 25 apps from the parent company of DDT.
China’s State Internet Information Office issued an announcement on WeChat public website on the evening of the 9th, taking down 25 apps under the parent company of DDT, Beijing Xiaogan Technology Co. This seems to respond to what many analysts have said before, that the blow to DDT will be heavier, possibly more than Alibaba, and is only the beginning.
The Chinese authorities said the 25 apps were taken down in accordance with national cybersecurity laws, and the announcement said websites and platforms should not provide browsing and downloading services for the 25 apps that have been ordered to be taken down from app stores, including “Drip Travel” and “Drip Enterprise”. The app is called “China Youbou”.
Drip, China’s largest online taxi group known as “China Uber,” raised about $4.4 billion in a U.S. initial public offering on June 29, making it the largest IPO of a Chinese company since Alibaba Group raised $25 billion in a U.S. IPO in 2014.
But just two days later, on July 2, China’s State Internet Information Office said it was suspending new user registrations in order to prevent “national data security risks, safeguard national security and protect public interests” by imposing a security review on DDT. Two days later, the authorities issued another notice, alleging that DDT was using personal information in serious violation of the law and ordered the app store to take it offline.
On Friday, authorities ordered 25 apps from the Drip Group to be taken down, but they did not elaborate on the reason for the allegations.
Since Jack Ma’s Ant Financial Services’ upcoming U.S. public offering was urgently halted by Beijing authorities, the authorities have launched a series of purges and punishments against the online giant in the name of anti-capitalism and anti-monopoly, and Ma has made few public appearances since then, and there was no sign of him at the just-held World Artificial Intelligence Conference.
But why exactly Beijing is taking such action against Drip is puzzling to all sides. One of the biggest questions is why the authorities “intercepted” Drip after its public offering in the United States, rather than before, when it was already on their radar.
The pro-Beijing Dovetail cited sources as saying that the core reason for the sudden downgrading of DDT was the anger of the top management, and that there were two reasons for the anger. “The second is that the ‘Data Security Law’ passed on June 10 will come into effect on September 1 this year, after which data regulation will be more stringent, so Drip rushed to “break through” before the law was implemented.
There is already a precedent for “top-level anger”, as Jack Ma’s Ant Financial Services was halted as a result of Xi Jinping’s “anger” after he learned of Ma’s attacks on financial regulators in Shanghai, according to sources quoted in the Wall Street Journal. As for the “preemptive” and “highly secretive” argument, it seems forced. Don’t the executives at DDT know what happened to Alibaba and other high-tech companies recently and rushed to the U.S. behind the back of the Chinese Communist Party authorities? The New York Times cites sources familiar with the matter as saying that the company completed its IPO with great speed, filing preliminary documents on June 10, announcing the expected price range for its shares two weeks later, and starting trading less than a week after that. The Financial Times, for its part, cited two people familiar with the matter as saying that China’s cyber authorities had asked Drip to modify the app’s mapping function before its U.S. listing, fearing it might disclose sensitive government locations, but that China’s Internet Information Office had not publicly cautioned Drip’s ride-hailing app before it went public in the U.S. In addition to this, the Internet Information Office had advised Drip to delay its IPO. the China Internet Information Office does not have the legal authority to delay the IPO, and Drip denied that it knew the authorities were prepared to intervene prior to the public offering.
The backdrop of China’s confrontation with the United States and the authorities’ desire to bring the company back to China to avoid potential data security risks are public reasons, but some analysts believe that in reality this is an instinctive act of self-preservation by the Xi regime in the face of a deteriorating situation at home and abroad, as has been evident since the crackdown on Alibaba, where the vast funds and resources in the hands of the online giant and the enormous influence it exerts have made the Xi regime uneasy. The huge amount of money and resources in the hands of online giants and the enormous influence derived from them have made the Xi Jinping regime uneasy. The authorities want to show their power and prevent risks through tough control measures, and the law is just an excuse.
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