China fines internet giants in anti-monopoly cases

China’s anti-monopoly regulator has fined companies & Internet giants Alibaba & Tencent in new move to tighten control over their fast-developing industries.

Highlights

• Alibaba & Tencent were fined in 22 cases.
• They were fined 5,00,000 yuan ($75,000) each for actions like acquiring stakes in other companies which might improperly increase their market power.
• Violators of the norms include six companies owned by Alibaba Group, five by Tencent Holding Limited and two companies owned by retailer Suning.com Limited.
• Alibaba was fined 18.3 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) in April for suppressing competition.

Why they were fined?

China’s leaders were worrying about dominance of biggest Internet companies. These companies are expanding into finance, health services and other sensitive areas. So, to discourage their monopoly fines were imposed.

Alibaba Group Holding Limited

This Chinese multinational technology company, also known as Alibaba Group and Alibaba.com, specializes in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology. It was founded on June 28, 1999 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. It provided consumer-to-consumer (C2C), business-to-consumer (B2C), and business-to-business (B2B) sales services through web portals. It also provides electronic payment services, shopping search engines and cloud computing services. Company owns and operates a diverse portfolio of companies across the world. it is one among world’s largest retailers and e-commerce companies. It was also rated as fifth-largest artificial intelligence company in 2020.

Tencent Holdings Ltd

This Chinese multinational company was founded in 1998. Its subsidiaries provide services in entertainment, artificial intelligence, and other technology. Its twin-skyscraper headquarters, Tencent Seafront Towers are based in Nanshan District of Shenzhen.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2021