It is now open war. China’s top leader has warned that Beijing will give no respite to tech platforms that have amassed big data and market power. President Xi Jinping chaired a meeting of the Communist Party’s top financial advisory and coordination committee on Monday, ordering regulators to step up oversight of internet companies, crack down on monopolies, promote fair competition, and prevent disorderly expansion. of the capital, according to the state broadcaster CCTV. Internet companies need to improve data security and financial activities need to be subject to regulatory oversight, CCTV reported.
Attack on platforms: the Pinduoduo case
The unusually strong comments from Xi and his lieutenants suggest that Beijing, after kicking off the crackdown in early November by suspending the listing of Ant Group, the richest ever, at the last minute, it is preparing to amplify the campaign to curb the influence of its largest and most powerful private companies, which so far has mainly focused on the giant of Alibaba e-commerce by Jack Ma (-15% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the last month), which controls Ant. The platform definition applies to many other internet and mobile phone giants, from Didi Chuxing to the food delivery giant Meituan, to e-commerce big names like JD.com and Pinduoduo (who undermines Alibaba), whose founder Colin Huang threw in the towel by leaving the role of president after allegations about working conditions in the company (one employee committed suicide and another felt ill returning home in January) and recent accusations of having “altered the ‘market order’.
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“Some platform companies are developing in non-standard ways and this presents risks,” CCTV said, citing the minutes of the meeting. “We need to speed up the improvement of the laws governing platform economies to fill gaps and gaps in a timely manner.” In short, everything must get back under control, even if this were to damage the economy of the Dragon itself.
South China Morning Post targeted
Alibaba in particular is in the sights of the Chinese government. The demand is that the group divest some of its media assets, including South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s leading English-language newspaper, which it owns 100%, due to growing concerns about the tech giant’s influence on the technology giant. ‘public opinion in the country. Jack Ma and Alibaba have built a vast portfolio of media assets over the years, spanning BuzzFeed-style online outlets, newspapers, television production companies, social media and advertising assets. Alibaba has a major stake in Weibo, China’s Twitter, as well as other online and print media outlets. Beijing is concerned that Alibaba may use its media assets as a tool to control public opinion, according to sources consulted by Bloomberg. The company’s media have already played a role in influencing the general public’s opinion on the emerging fintech industry.
Regulators looked at a list of Alibaba’s media assets and were shocked at how extensive the company’s interests have become and asked it to come up with a plan to substantially reduce holdings, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing knowledgeable people. The rise of Ma’s media empire was seen as a serious challenge to the Communist Party.