He pushed Uber out of China. Then he got too big for Beijing

But Didi’s risky play for expansion and dominance — culminating in a disastrous IPO this summer — has caused it to run afoul of Beijing. And now, the company’s top executive faces a difficult balancing act: placating regulators at home and investors abroad, while fending off fierce competition.Cheng, 38, who also goes by Will Cheng, is the youngest entrepreneur heading one of China’s biggest tech firms. He’s been busy in the nine years since Didi was founded: Cheng has knocked out a flurry of powerful opponents and amassed nearly 160 million monthly active users by the first quarter of this year in China alone, nearly double the amount of users that Uber has worldwide.Still, Tu said, rivals are unlikely to threaten Didi’s dominance entirely. He pointed out Didi has spent tens of billions to acquire customers, and that ride-hailing a tough business to tackle without a lot of financing since customers aren’t typically loyal to a brand if someone else can undercut their prices. Initial government data suggested that Didi’s existing business didn’t take a hit after the ban, even if it couldn’t register new users. The company processed 13% more orders in July than it did in June, according to China’s Ministry of Transport.”The government just wants a healthier market, not killing Didi,” Tu said, adding that he expected Didi to survive, albeit with a “less bold” expansion plan.Capri, the Hinrich Foundation research fellow, was less optimistic about Didi’s future — particularly for as long as it keeps trading in the United States. “Parts of could be nationalized,” he said. “Beijing will also actively fund smaller competitors to even out the market and more easily exert control over the main players.””The longer it stays listed on the US market,” he added, “the more ire it will draw from Beijing.”