A set of proposed regulations for China’s online ride-hailing industry are shaping up as a bellwether of how much internet “disruption” Beijing will tolerate — and are being closely watched by the country’s biggest tech companies.
Last month the Ministry of Transport published draft rules that would legalise the nascent sector but could also stifle it with bureaucratic red tape, and gave the industry one month to respond.
That has thrown ride-hailing companies including San Francisco-based Uber and Didi Kuaidi, its local competitor, into a behind-the-scenes lobbying effort over the new rules, which could raise their costs prohibitively.