As the founder of a two-year-old tech startup in Shenzhen, a coastal metropolis of 13 million people sometimes likened to China’s Silicon Valley, 28-year-old David Liang is used to burning the midnight oil.
Almost without fail, Liang would go back to his office after dinner, staying as late as 2am working on lines of code, or reviewing the business plan for his online education startup. But not this week. Liang headed straight home after his shift because Didi Chuxing, the Uber of China, had suspended for seven days all of its services from 11pm to 5am. He could stand on the street to hail a taxi, but he has grown so accustomed to hailing a cab with his smartphone that he decided it was not worth the hassle.