Apple Gives Up Board Seat at Chinese Ride-Hailing Company Didi

Apple has given up its board seat at Didi Global as the Chinese ride-hailing company struggles to return to growth following crushing fines and restrictions imposed by Beijing's cyberspace regulator, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Tim Cook Beijing Didi Chuxing

Apple CEO Tim Cook with Didi Chuxing president Jean Liu in 2016

Adrian Perica, Apple's vice president of corporate development, resigned from the board earlier this month, according to a notice posted on Didi's website.

Perica, who heads Apple's mergers and acquisitions strategy, joined Didi's board in 2016 after Apple made a $1 billion investment in the the ride hailing app. The move was described by CEO ‌‌Tim Cook‌‌ at the time as a "strategic investment" that would help Apple better understand the Chinese market.

The problems started for Didi last year, when Apple was informed by China's internet regulator that it must remove the Didi Chuxing ride hailing app from the Chinese App Store, after Beijing raised concerns about the Uber rival's possible misuse of personal data.

Didi's removal from China's mobile app stores effectively hamstrung the company and the action erased more than 80% of its market value. Then last month, following a year-long investigation, Didi was fined $1.2 billion by the Chinese government for infractions that Beijing said compromised national security.

The decision followed broader moves by Beijing to curb the influence of China's largest internet corporations and tighten the ownership of the personal data of hundreds of millions of users held by the likes of Alibaba, Tencent, and others.

Apple's investments and acquisitions have dramatically slowed over the past two years, with the tech giant being more selective in the face of a shaky economy and heightened government scrutiny.

Popular Stories

iOS 26 Feature

iOS 26.1 to iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps. More features and changes will follow in future ...
ios 26 1 liquid glass opaque

iOS 26.1 Beta 4 Lets Users Control Liquid Glass Transparency with New Toggle

Monday October 20, 2025 10:57 am PDT by
With the fourth betas of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS 26.1, Apple has introduced a new setting that's designed to allow users to customize the look of Liquid Glass. The toggle lets users select from a clear look for Liquid Glass, or a tinted look. Clear is the current Liquid Glass design, which is more transparent and shows the background underneath buttons, bars, and menus, while tinted ...
iphone air thickness

Apple Said to Cut iPhone Air Production Amid Underwhelming Sales

Friday October 17, 2025 8:29 am PDT by
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec). The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
iOS 26

iOS 26.0.2 Update for iPhones Coming Soon

Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet. The update will likely be released by the end of next week. Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
Apple iPad Pro hero M5

New iPad Pro Has Six Key Upgrades Beyond M5 Chip

Saturday October 18, 2025 10:57 am PDT by
While the new iPad Pro's headline feature is the M5 chip, the device has some other changes, including N1 and C1X chips, faster storage speeds, and more. With the M5 chip, the new iPad Pro has up to a 20% faster CPU and up to a 40% faster GPU compared to the previous model with the M4 chip, according to Geekbench 6 results. Keep in mind that 256GB and 512GB configurations have a 9-core CPU,...
iPhone Siri Glow

Some Apple Employees Have 'Concerns' About iOS 26.4's Revamped Siri

Sunday October 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by
iOS 26.4 is expected to introduce a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, but not everyone is satisfied with how well it works. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said some of Apple's software engineers have "concerns" about the overhauled Siri's performance. However, he did not provide any specific details about the shortcomings. iOS 26.4 will...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple's Next Rumored Products: New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and More

Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year. The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
maxresdefault

Here's How the iOS 26.1 Transparency Toggle Changes Liquid Glass

Monday October 20, 2025 1:55 pm PDT by
With the fourth beta of iOS 26.1, Apple added a toggle that makes Liquid Glass more opaque and reduces transparency. We tested the beta to see where the toggle works and what it looks like. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. If you have the latest iOS 26.1 beta, you can go to Settings > Display and Brightness to get to the new option. Tap on Liquid Glass, then...
m4 macbook air blue

M5 MacBook Air Coming Spring 2026 With M5 Mac Studio and Mac Mini in Development

Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year. Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...

Top Rated Comments

ponzicoinbro Avatar
41 months ago
Look at the stock price over 5 years of all ride sharing, food delivery, airbnb, wework businesses.

Retail investors deep in the red with big losses. VCs and founders ran off with the money already.

These type of businesses are parasite businesses. They just feast on the blood of the masses while adding costs everywhere.

Your rent is higher because of Airbnb property speculators.

Your pollution is higher because ride sharing clogs the streets and people get tempted to use that instead of public transport.

Zero sum game and zero benefit for the masses. Only a small number of rich people gain.
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
himanshumodi Avatar
41 months ago
Looks like Apple did learn an expensive lesson about China's market.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Onexy Avatar
41 months ago
Data privacy is not the real reason for the fines. In China it never is.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Scipster Avatar
41 months ago
I'm confused. China requested the app be pulled over data privacy concerns? I thought data privacy was a joke under the all-seeing, all-knowing authoritarian state?
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ghanwani Avatar
41 months ago

I'm confused. China requested the app be pulled over data privacy concerns? I thought data privacy was a joke under the all-seeing, all-knowing authoritarian state?
There’s a difference between a company using user data and the state using it.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
indychris Avatar
41 months ago

Looks like Apple did learn an expensive lesson about China's market.
It’d be awesome if Apple would learn a lesson about China period. Wishful thinking I s’pose. Few do.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)