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Jean Liu is stepping down as president and from the board of Didi, the Chinese language ride-hailing large she co-founded a decade in the past and had led on the time of its botched US share sale in 2021.
As soon as Didi’s public ambassador and among the many most high-profile feminine leaders in Chinese language tech, the 45-year-old will stay on the firm as chief individuals officer, in accordance with an e mail despatched by Didi chief Cheng Wei and Liu to staff on Sunday.
She joined Didi from Goldman Sachs in 2014 and hosted Apple’s Tim Prepare dinner two years later in Beijing, securing $1bn from the US tech large to gas Didi’s development. She gained billions extra from traders comparable to SoftBank. When driver-passenger violence broke out in a Didi automotive, she flew to the scene to consolation kinfolk.
However after the group’s $4.4bn New York preliminary public providing got here below investigation by Beijing, Liu went silent. The corporate delisted and suffered a $1bn effective from Chinese language regulators for ‘vile’ breaches of the nation’s knowledge legal guidelines.
Liu made invisible her years of Weibo posts and took a extra behind-the-scenes position on the firm, two Didi staff mentioned. Internally many blamed her for pushing the IPO and for the corporate’s ensuing regulatory troubles, they mentioned.
In 2023, her high lieutenant, Stephen Zhu, who had adopted Liu to Didi from Goldman Sachs, stepped down as a Didi director after earlier shedding his title as chief of worldwide enterprise.
Of their memo to employees, Cheng mentioned that though Liu would now not be president, “the departments and tasks below her administration stay unchanged” and that she was his “closest comrade and associate”.
Liu will deal with “organisational transformation and expertise improvement, and work with me to advertise the corporate’s efforts in social duty”, Cheng wrote. He added that Didi wouldn’t appoint a brand new president.
Liu mentioned she initiated the change to deal with Didi’s long-term development, noting she had “skilled many feelings and been deeply moved” throughout her 10 years on the firm, and was “stuffed with anticipation and eagerness for the long run”.
“Please relaxation assured, I’ll proceed to struggle alongside everybody to welcome the approaching 10 years at Didi in the most effective state attainable,” she mentioned.
Liu’s exit from govt positions might delay the corporate’s hoped for Hong Kong itemizing, which shareholders have pushed for because the firm moved to over-the-counter buying and selling within the US in 2022. The Hong Kong Inventory Alternate typically requires corporations to attend a yr to listing after altering senior executives.
Liu’s title change comes because the Chinese language group’s funds present indicators of steadying. Final yr, Didi narrowed its working loss to Rmb5.7bn ($790mn) and swung to a Rmb535mn web revenue with the assistance of funding and curiosity revenue.
The group retained nearly all of its customers throughout Beijing’s months-long probe, throughout which its app was banned. In 2021, Chinese language officers have been stationed for months at its Beijing workplaces.
The turmoil has left US traders with massive losses. Didi’s inventory worth remains to be down about 65 per cent from its itemizing worth of $14 a share and the debacle badly broken investor confidence in Chinese language tech corporations. Beijing has but to permit one other massive tech firm to promote shares within the US.
Extra reporting by Cheng Leng in Hong Kong
