A man holding a phone passes a sign on the TikTok application of the Chinese company ByteDance, known locally as Douyin, at the International Artificial Products Expo in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, October 18, 2019.
Reuters
Regulators fined Alibaba a record $ 2.8 billion over the weekend for stifling competition in online retail, then met with affiliate Ant on Monday and ordered its restructuring as a financial holding company.
Then on Tuesday, the State Administration for Market Regulation warned of 34 Chinese “internet platforms” in a meeting to learn about the crackdown on Alibaba and present a plan to comply with antitrust practices within a month.
Chinese regulators have focused in recent months on e-commerce giant Jack Ma and his fintech group Ant Group, whose giant IPO was abruptly suspended in November. Authorities had begun investigating Alibaba in December, primarily for a practice of forcing traders to choose between the two platforms, rather than allowing them to work with both.
Details of the 12 corporate commitments launched on Wednesday varied by industry and generally discussed efforts to support fair competition and consumer data protection. Listed companies included Baidu, JD.com, Meituan, antivirus software company Qihoo 360, Twitter-like social networking platform Sina Weibo, parent ByteDance TikTok, group shopping site Pinduoduo, electronics retailer Suning and e-commerce company Vipshop.
The announcements are the first in a series of such promises to appear in the next three days, the regulator said.
Other names traded in the US or Hong Kong mentioned in Tuesday’s list of the 34 internet platforms that were not included in Wednesday’s initial round included iQiyi, Bilibili, Kuaishou, Mogu and 58.com.
– CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.