Uber China Boss Liu Zhen to Step Down

(Beijing) — The head of Uber China has resigned from her post, two months after the online ride-hailing company's Chinese operation merged with its biggest domestic rival, Didi Chuxing Technology Co.

Liu Zhen, senior vice president of the Chinese arm of San Francisco-based Uber Inc., published a social-media post on WeChat earlier on Friday, hinting at leaving after an eight-month stint in the top job.

Uber China later confirmed that Liu has decided to leave, but didn't say when she will step down.

"I think a lot of the team at Uber China are like a special task force who will only have room for an extraordinary performance if they can find their niche," Liu wrote in her post.

The announcement comes only two months after Uber Inc. gave up its bruising battle for a share of the country's growing online ride-hailing market by selling its China business for a minority stake in rival Didi. For two years, the two companies went head-to-head in efforts to establish a foothold in the world's second-largest economy, spending tens of millions of dollars a month to attract riders and subsidize drivers. Didi emerged as the clear winner, with over 85.3 percent of all online car-hire orders being placed through its app in the first three months of the year, while Uber got only 7.8 percent.

Didi also finished on top in the battle to attract investments, with the Chinese company securing $10 billion in funding from investors that included Apple Inc.

Liu joined Uber's Chinese subsidiary in April 2015 as its strategy chief. Before that, she offered legal counsel to internet startups, including Uber, as a lawyer in Silicon Valley for a decade.

"When I was a lawyer, I encountered situations when the board drove away a company's founder," Liu wrote. "During the whirlwind one-week negotiation for the deal, I told myself many times that I should be in the 'lawyer mode.'… But I wasn't qualified to be 'outside counsel' during this process."

Liu is a cousin of Liu Qing, or Jean Liu, the president of Didi.

Contact reporter Chen Na (nachen@caixin.com); editor Poornima Weerasekara (poornima@caixin.com)