On June 11, Didi formally submitted its IPO prospectus to SEC under the stock symbol "DIDI", with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P.Morgan Chase & Co and China Renaissance Capital Investment as underwriters.
For the purpose of this fund-raising, Didi disclosed in its prospectus that it plans to use about 30% of the money raised to expand its business in international markets outside China; about 30% of the money raised will be used to enhance technical capabilities, including shared travel, electric cars and self-driving; and about 20% will be used to launch new products and expand existing product categories to continuously improve the user experience. The rest may be used for working capital requirements and potential strategic investments.
According to the prospectus, as of March 2021, Didi had operations in more than 4000 cities and towns in 15 countries, including China, providing ride-hailing, taxi-hailing, hitchhiking, shared bicycles, shared motorcycles, generation driving, car services, freight transportation, finance and self-driving. Didi classifies these business ecology into "four core strategic sections", "three major businesses" and "double flywheels".
Four core strategic sections: shared travel platform, car service network, electric car and self-driving.
Three major businesses: represent the income composition of Didi, they are China travel business (ride-hailing, taxi, ride-hailing and ride-sharing business), international business (international travel and takeout business, etc.) and other businesses (bike and motorcycle sharing, car service, freight transport, self-driving and financial services, etc.).
Twin flywheels: focus on business models. With the continued growth of the overall shared travel market, Didi's shared travel, car service and electric vehicle network has created a dual flywheel effect that benefits drivers, passengers and platforms.
The prospectus also announced the income of Didi's specific business. In 2020, the income of Didi's three major businesses-- China travel business, international business and other businesses-- was 133.6 billion yuan, 2.3 billion yuan and 5.8 billion yuan respectively. Among them, the platform revenue of China's travel business and international business increased from 18.7 billion yuan in 2018 to 24.2 billion yuan in 2019, and further to 34.7 billion yuan in 2020, with an average annual compound growth rate of 36 percent.
In the six months from July 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020, the total transaction volume of China's travel business was 121.6 billion yuan, an increase of 80.3% over the six months from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020, and an increase of 12.2% over the six months from July 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019. Of the platform revenue in 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, 93.4% came from China and 6.6% from international sources.
In terms of profit performance, China's travel business achieved an adjusted profit before interest and tax of 3.84 billion yuan in 2019, 3.96 billion yuan in 2020 and 3.62 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2021. In addition, the profit margin before interest, tax and amortization of China's online car-hailing business in 2020 is 3.1%.
In the 12 months to March 31, 2021, Didi had 493 million global active users and 15 million global active drivers. Among them, Didi has 377 million active users and 13 million active drivers in China from March 31, 2020 to March 31, 2021. In the first quarter of 2021, Didi China had 156 million monthly active users, with an average daily transaction volume of 25 million.
In terms of unit volume and trading volume, in the 12 months to March 31, 2021, Didi's global average daily trading volume was 41 million, with a total platform-wide trading volume of 341 billion yuan. During the three-year period from January 1, 2018 to March 31, 2021, the total income of platform drivers was about 600 billion yuan.
As of December 31, 2020, Didi had a total of 15914 full-time employees worldwide, of which 7110 were R & D employees, accounting for 44.7%.
