Beijing’s sweeping regulatory assault on the domestic tech sector hurt a lot of companies. But for some startups, the government’s moves knocked out the competition.
Take Lalamove, a last-mile–delivery startup for business customers whose backers include Sequoia Capital China and Tiger Global Management. When Didi Global, China’s biggest ride-hailing company, halted its costly expansion into on-demand delivery last summer because it was facing a crippling cybersecurity investigation, Lalamove became China’s uncontested leader in facilitating same-city deliveries of goods, mainly for small physical retailers restocking inventories.
