Didi’s Uninspiring Public Debut

Executives at Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global can relax. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange today and, hey, it went up! Not by much—1%—but that’s better than Uber achieved two years ago. Yes, when it comes to ride hailing and Wall Street, the bar for success is low.

You can’t blame investors for being dubious about the industry. None of the three public ride-hailing companies, a group that includes Lyft, have demonstrated they can make real money. Investing in Didi is doubly risky, given that it is exposed to the whims of the Chinese government, which lately has shown an irritation with big-talking tech billionaires.