Chinese ride-hailing giant posts 8.14 billion yuan domestic profit in first half of 2026, but overseas losses widen to 5.77 billion yuan.
Didi Chuxing reported a first-half loss despite continued growth in its core China ride-hailing business, as aggressive overseas expansion and investment in new technologies weighed on earnings.
Didi’s first-quarter loss of 1.22 billion yuan ($181 million) meant the company remained in the red for the first half, despite a second-quarter turnaround that saw net income attributable to shareholders of 866 million yuan. First-half revenue rose 10.6% to 121.3 billion yuan, while operating profit reached 363 million yuan, compared with a 1.39 billion yuan loss a year earlier. Net loss attributable to shareholders was 354 million yuan, compared with a loss of 129 million yuan in the first half of 2025.
Didi reports its results across three operating segments. In addition to the China Mobility and International businesses, the company’s “Other Initiatives” segment — which includes bike-sharing, energy services, autonomous driving, and financial services — recorded an adjusted operating loss of 1.65 billion yuan in the first half of 2026. Combined with higher tax expenses of 1.49 billion yuan and a swing to investment losses, these items bridge the gap between the segment-level subtotal and the reported net loss attributable to shareholders.
Domestic dominance sustains profit
The net loss marks a reversal after two consecutive years of full-year profitability. Didi recorded net profits of 1.28 billion yuan in 2024 and 993 million yuan in 2025.
Among China’s major ride-hailing platforms, Didi remains the dominant player. Frost & Sullivan data show that it held 72.1% of China’s ride-hailing market in 2025, while the top five platforms together accounted for more than 89%.
Its domestic business continues to provide the financial foundation. Didi’s China orders rose 8.1% year over year to 3.65 billion in the second quarter, marking the 14th consecutive quarter of growth. Gross transaction value (GTV) rose 9.5% to 90.35 billion yuan, while platform revenue increased 21.6% to 21.9 billion yuan. Adjusted EBITA rose 15% to 4.2 billion yuan.
For the first half, adjusted EBITDA from China’s ride-hailing business jumped 20.5% to 8.14 billion yuan.
The faster growth in GTV and platform revenue than in orders suggests that average transaction values are rising. Platform revenue is also increasing faster than GTV, indicating that Didi is taking a larger share of each transaction, partly because subsidies have been reduced.
With China’s ride-hailing market approaching saturation, Didi can no longer rely on spending heavily to attract users and expand its scale. Instead, it is trying to extract more value from each ride.
One approach is service segmentation. Didi has introduced products including Didi Light and Zhenxuan Express to target customers willing to pay for upgraded service. Zhenxuan Express is now available in 24 cities. Didi says complaints have fallen 46.3% following the upgrade, while the customer satisfaction rate has reached 98%. Drivers on the service earn an average of about 130 yuan more per week.
Didi is also broadening its domestic offering. Its ride-hailing app was recently renamed simply “Didi,” and now includes food delivery, vehicle-owner services and travel bookings such as flights, hotels and group tours. The move signals an ambition to evolve from a mobility app into a broader lifestyle-services platform, although its financial contribution remains unclear.
Overseas growth comes at a cost
While China’s business is steadily improving, Didi is accelerating its international expansion. International orders rose 29% year over year to 1.40 billion in the second quarter, with average daily orders exceeding 15 million. International GTV surged 61.1% to 43.59 billion yuan, while revenue rose 18.4% to 3.26 billion yuan.
International GTV reached 81.2 billion yuan in the first half, accounting for 31.6% of Didi’s total. The proportion was just 23.3% in 2024 and 26% in 2025.
The problem is that losses are growing almost as quickly as the business. Didi’s international operations lost 2.89 billion yuan in the second quarter, unchanged from the first quarter, bringing the first-half loss to 5.77 billion yuan. Adjusted EBITA losses were 1.8 billion yuan in 2024 and 6.05 billion yuan in 2025.
In other words, the bigger Didi gets overseas, the more money it loses — a pattern reminiscent of the company’s early battle for dominance in China.
The core issue: overseas growth remains heavily subsidy-driven. In Brazil, Didi’s 99 platform has 55 million active users and 1.5 million registered drivers, capturing about 40% of the ride-hailing market, second only to Uber. Last April, Didi relaunched its food delivery service 99 Food after a 2019 failure, using discounts and free delivery to gain traction, now covering over 100 Brazilian cities.
Competition is intensifying. In August last year, Brazilian instant-retail giant iFood pledged $3.5 billion in investment by March this year. In October, Meituan’s Keeta entered Brazil with a $1 billion five-year commitment. Didi has little choice but to keep spending until the market stabilises.
Innovation costs weigh on profits
The company is also investing heavily in AI and autonomous driving. Research and development spending reached 4.8 billion yuan in the first half, up 24% year over year, further weighing on short-term profits.
At home, Didi remains the undisputed leader. But its path to sustained profitability now hinges on whether its overseas offensive can eventually replicate the domestic transition from burning cash to generating returns – a milestone that still looks distant.
Source:
MingJing Pro
