(Yicai Global) Feb. 15 -- Didi Global plans to make about 20 percent of its employees redundant because the Chinese ride-hailing giant’s share of its home market has been falling since it cannot register new users, according to a LatePost report.

Jobs will be shed at Didi’s online car-hailing, two-wheeled vehicle and freight transport businesses, with the scale of layoffs varying from division to division, the report said yesterday, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.

Didi was pulled from app stores in China last July after the country’s cybersecurity watchdog launched an investigation into the firm on suspicion that it had unlawfully collected and used user data. Since then, Didi’s share of China’s online ride-hailing market has tumbled to 70 percent from nearly 90 percent, LatePost said.

The long-rumored layoffs began in the middle of last month at the Beijing-based company’s R-Lab, which mainly focuses on food deliveries, the report said. R-Lab has now shut its domestic business, while the international take-away technology team was subsumed into the international division.

Staff will not be let go from Didi’s international and autonomous driving divisions, the report added.

Didi’s average daily orders slumped 20 percent to about 20 million in January from last June, when the company published its New York listing prospectus, according to LatePost. Didi raised USD4.4 billion from its initial pubic offering.

LatePost also said Didi’s grocery business Chengxin Youxuan has scaled back its operating area to nine provinces in China from 31 before Sept. 15. Its net loss reached CNY20.8 billion (USD3.3 billion) as of Sept. 30, according to Didi’s third-quarter earnings report. Didi’s two-wheeled vehicle business is also still losing money, the report said.

Shares of Didi Global [NYSE: DIDI] jumped 7.3 percent yesterday to close at USD4.28 apiece. The stock has fallen 14 percent since the start of the year. The company has already announced plans to delist from the New York Stock Exchange in favor of a new listing in Hong Kong.

Editor: Futura Costaglione