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GUANGZHOU, China — Didi’s main app has been removed from Tencent’s WeChat messaging service and Ant Group’s Alipay, in another blow to the Chinese ride-hailing company.
WeChat, which boasts over 1 billion users, and Alipay, which has over 900 million, are so-called super-apps. That means users can open and use other apps, like Didi, without leaving Alipay or WeChat.
But the main Didi service has been removed as a shortcut from WeChat and searching for the app no longer yields any results.
In Alipay, which is run by Alibaba affiliate Ant Group, searching for Didi also returned no results.
If a user previously opened and used Didi within Alipay or WeChat, or saved the Didi mini-program, they can still continue to use the ride-hailing service within the super-apps.
Alipay and WeChat are critical portals to connect services with users because an individual does not need to download every app they want to use. Instead, they can access them through Alipay and WeChat — both apps already have a huge user base.
The moves come after Chinese regulators opened a cybersecurity review into Didi, just days after its more than $4.4 billion public listing in the U.S.
On Sunday, authorities ordered app stores in China to remove the ride-hailing service for download. Existing users can continue to use the app.
WeChat and Alipay are not technically app stores. It’s not clear how long after the Sunday order from regulators that WeChat and Alipay removed the Didi mini-program from being searchable.
Didi, Tencent and Ant Group did not respond to a request for comment.
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