A Chinese regulator has advised tech giants Alibaba, Tencent and others to stop blocking reciprocal website links on their respective platforms, Reuters reported.
This is the latest chapter in an ongoing regulatory push China is delivering on businesses, Reuters reported, citing the 21st Century Business Herald. The Chinese internet has historically been dominated by numerous technology giants known for blocking the links of their rivals on their platforms. Analysts have called them “walled gardens”.
According to the report, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has set a deadline by which the platforms must be unblocked. If companies fail to do so, other measures could be taken.
Regulators accuse companies of restricting customer choice and trying to build monopolies, the report said.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Alibaba and Tencent are slowly looking for ways to open up their services to one another. So far, that has consisted of launching Tencent’s WeChat Pay on Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall e-commerce marketplaces, Reuters reported.
China’s ongoing tightening of regulations could have a sobering impact on technology company innovation. The crackdown has already had an impact on heavy fines, canceled mergers and frozen public offers.
Continue reading: China’s great technical penetration could shake innovation
Alibaba, for example, has been fined $ 2.8 billion in antitrust law, and the Meituan food delivery platform has been investigated for its alleged anti-competitive behavior.
Meanwhile, Tencent’s merger with Huya and DouYu has been blocked, while Ant Group’s own initial public offering (IPO) has been halted.
There is kind of a conundrum with the question of how much power to allow in relation to e-commerce, social media, and other such platforms.
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NEW PYMNTS DATA: TODAY’S SELF-SERVICE TRIP – SEPTEMBER 2021
Above: Eighty percent of consumers are interested in non-traditional checkout options like self-service, but only 35 percent have been able to use them for their recent purchases. Today’s Self-Service Shopping Journey, a collaboration between PYMNTS and Toshiba, analyzed over 2,500 responses to learn how merchants can address availability and perception issues to meet demand for self-service kiosks.
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