SACKS: That's a treasure trove from a foreign intelligence perspective. It can predict when you need a ride and for consumer safety, even record audio inside the car during the ride. It knows where people are going and also their phone and bank account numbers. The company keeps track of who's taking rides and who's driving. RUWITCH: China has long been uncomfortable with financial disclosure requirements in the U.S., and companies like DiDi add an extra layer of discomfort for the ruling Communist Party. SAMM SACKS: What I think is probably going on is that Chinese regulators are freaked out about Chinese companies disclosing sensitive data in the process of listing in the United States. And that helps explain why China's ruling Communist Party took a swing at it, says Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center. In some cities, you can barely get a cab without it. It has nearly 600 million users and books tens of millions of rides each month. JOHN RUWITCH, BYLINE: DiDi has been called the Uber of China, but it's bigger - a lot bigger. NPR's China affairs correspondent John Ruwitch looks at what it all means. They ordered DiDi's suite of apps removed from app stores in China and said the company was being investigated for possibly violating the country's data protection rules. Just days later, Chinese regulators took some extraordinary steps.
It was a Chinese ride-hailing company called DiDi Global, and it raised $4.4 billion. One of the biggest IPOs of the year took place last month in New York.