Didi was founded as Didi Dache in Beijing in 2012 as a taxi-hailing app, later adding private hire. Backed by influential investors, including the internet giant Tencent, it grew rapidly and, in 2015, merged with its competitor Kuaidi Dache, which had investment from another of China's biggest tech companies, Alibaba.

Yes, DiDi Global Inc. (commonly known as Didi Chuxing) is a Chinese-owned and headquartered company. It was founded in Beijing in 2012 by Cheng Wei and has since grown to become the dominant ride-hailing platform in China, especially after its high-profile acquisition of Uber's China operations in 2016. While it is a Chinese company, its ownership structure is technically a mix of domestic and international investment. For years, major global entities like SoftBank, Tencent, and Alibaba held significant stakes, and it was even briefly listed on the New York Stock Exchange before delisting in 2022 following regulatory pressure from the Chinese government regarding data security. Despite these global financial ties, the "controlling mind" and regulatory oversight of the company are firmly rooted in China. Under the leadership of Jean Liu and Cheng Wei, DiDi remains a cornerstone of the Chinese "app economy," though it has recently focused more heavily on domestic stability and state-aligned data protocols after a turbulent period of international expansion.