China’s Didi Q2 revenue grows as regulatory curbs ease

BEIJING (Reuters) - Revenues at China's Didi Chuxing rose 52.6% for the April-June quarter from a year earlier to 48.8 billion yuan ($6.65 billion, as the ride-hailing firm emerged from a regulatory crackdown and demand rebounded with the end of strict COVID-19 restrictions.

Didi posted a net loss of 300 million yuan, the company said in a statement on Saturday.

The company, launched in Beijing in 2012 and backed by prominent investors including Alibaba, Tencent and SoftBank Group, ran afoul of regulators at the powerful Cyberspace Administration of China when it pressed ahead in 2021 with a U.S. stock listing against the regulator's wishes, sources have told Reuters. It was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange last year.

Didi began to emerge from its regulatory troubles earlier this year, after China announced the end up of a cybersecurity investigation into the firm and allowed it to restore its apps to mobile app stores.

The company said it plans "to engage with our consumers and drivers more actively for the rest of 2023 through effective promotion and more diversified and affordable product offerings."

($1 = 7.3430 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Yelin Mo and Brenda Goh; Editing by William Mallard)