China tells Alibaba, Tencent to open platforms up to every other – media

SHANGHAI, Sept 11 (Reuters) – China’s marketplace ministry has instructed technology firms which include Alibaba Group Ltd (9988.HK) and Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) to stop blocking each other’s web-site inbound links from their platforms, the 21st Century Organization Herald claimed Saturday.

The newspaper, citing unnamed sources, explained the Ministry of Industry and Facts Engineering proposed criteria to organizations on Friday for instant messaging products and services, telling them all platforms ought to be unblocked by a specific time.

The ministry mentioned it may have to vacation resort to other measures if the corporations did not comply, the newspaper said.

The shift is the most recent in a regulatory crackdown spanning industries from tech to amusement and gaming corporations.

Providers that attended the meeting involved Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, Baidu Inc , Huawei Systems Co (HWT.UL) and Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK), the newspaper stated. The firms did not promptly respond to requests for comment.

China’s web is dominated by a handful of technological know-how giants who have traditionally blocked hyperlinks and providers by rivals on their platforms, producing what analysts have explained as “walled gardens”.

Regulators in latest months have cracked down, accusing organizations of developing monopolies and restricting consumers’ options.

In July, the Wall Road Journal described that Alibaba and Tencent ended up progressively thinking about opening up their providers to every other, this sort of as by introducing Tencent’s WeChat Pay to Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall e-commerce marketplaces.

Reporting by Brenda Goh in Shanghai and Yingzhi Yang in Beijing Modifying by William Mallard

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