The Chinese company DiDi , which controls 99, has felt the "bitter" result of implementing its food delivery operation in Brazil with 99Food. A report from the Australian bank Macquarie downgraded its recommendation for the company due to the high cost of operating food delivery in Brazil.
A document signed by analyst Ellie Jiang shows that the company recorded a loss of 2.1 billion yuan (US$307 million), driven precisely by the international segment, which includes Brazil - with a negative result of 3.4 billion yuan (US$497.8 million), four times greater than that recorded in the previous year.
"The losses were largely linked to the company's entry into the food delivery sector in Brazil, where expansion and incentives for users and drivers increased costs," says the Macquarie report.
The financial institution forecasts that DiDi's international segment will register a loss of 10 billion yuan (US$1.47 billion) in 2026. The reasons are the same: growth in transaction volume and continued expenses in the Brazilian operation.
As a result, DiDi's stock fell from outperform to neutral. The target price for the next 12 months, according to the Australian institution, plummeted from US$9.30 to US$3.90, a reduction of 42%.
“Given its significant spending and limited visibility toward an IPO in Hong Kong, we see no short-term catalyst and are downgrading to neutral,” says the Macquarie analyst.
On Monday, April 13th, the company's shares were trading at $3.78 at 4 PM (US time).
In practice, today the delivery service in Brazil is seen both as a potential driver of growth, but also as one that significantly impacts the company's short-term results.
In its financial report, DiDi acknowledges a 46% increase in sales and marketing expenses by 2025, driven by growth in consumer discounts and spending to expand its delivery business in the Brazilian market.
The Chinese company resumed its meal delivery operation in Brazil in August of last year, covering cities such as São Paulo, Guarulhos, Osasco, and the ABC Paulista region. The operation also began in Goiânia. Rio de Janeiro and Salvador were the most recent locations where the company started operating.
The service had been interrupted in 2023, and resumed after the announcement of a R$ 1 billion investment plan by the Chinese company, covering all of the company's operations in Brazil, including delivery, financial solutions, and the urban mobility segment.
In September, DiDi's CEO and founder, Will Wei Cheng, was in Brasília, meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to discuss the company's investments in the country. During the meeting, the executive stated that investments would double to R$ 2 billion by June 2026, with the ambition of reaching 20 cities in the first few months of the year.
It was precisely the need to develop other areas that generated more profitability for the company, such as 99Moto, and the fierce competition in the Brazilian delivery market with iFood that led DiDi to stop operating the food delivery model. Today, in addition to being the market leader, 99Food faces competition from the also Chinese company Keeta in the country.
Didi's revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025, however, registered a 10% growth over the same period of the previous year, reaching 58 billion yuan (US$8.5 billion). In its financial report, the company acknowledges increased costs related to marketing activities and subsidies, especially in the international market.
In 2026, DiDi's shares on the OTC over-the-counter market, a type of stock exchange in the United States, will have accumulated a 28.2% drop. In six months, the devaluation is 39.5%. The Chinese company is valued at US$17.6 billion.
