On Tuesday, Alibaba’s UC browser by huawei, Xiaomi and other operations of the Android store shelves, Apple system App STORE, UC browser download service is still normal.
Tuesday (March 16), Reuters search Huawei, Xiaomi and other major Android app stores found that Alibaba’s UC browser Tuesday by the Android store shelves, or search can not be found, or display “service adjustment, temporarily not available for download”; Apple system APP STORE, UC browser download service is still normal.
Taiwan‘s “Free Finance” reports that the removal of Alibaba’s UC Browser from app stores shows that the Chinese Communist Party is just beginning to overhaul online platform companies.
On Monday (March 15), Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over the ninth meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Commission, stressing that it will continue to target so-called “platform companies” that have accumulated a lot of data and market power.
In this meeting, Xi Jinping directly named “some platform enterprises are not standardized, there are risks, the platform economy is not fully developed, there are shortcomings, the regulatory system does not adapt to the problem is also more prominent”. In the regulation of enterprises to adhere to the “correct political” direction, from the “national strategy” height, “clear rules, clear bottom line, strengthen supervision … against monopoly, to prevent capital disorderly The government will also strengthen regulation.
Taiwanese media reports suggest that Xi’s tough and unusual language signals that the Chinese government may be preparing to expand its actions to curb the influence of large and powerful private companies. The crackdown from Alibaba and its subsidiary Ant Group will extend to other online giants, including Tencent, Drip, Meituan Dianping, Jingdong Mall and Jindo, among others.
Bloomberg reported on March 12, citing people familiar with the matter, that Tencent was seen as the next target by the Communist Party’s top regulator after Ant Group came under a regulatory crackdown. Tencent could be required to set up a financial holding company to include its banking, insurance and payment services, as Ant Group was, and the two companies would set a precedent for other fintech companies in complying with stricter regulations.
This Time, application (app) stores for Android operating systems run by Huawei, Xiaomi and Tencent are preventing customers from downloading or removing Alibaba’s UC browser, in another blow to Alibaba, Taiwanese media reported. In China, removing an app for a period of time is a common penalty for companies that violate the rules.
The Wall Street Journal reported March 15, citing sources familiar with the matter, that the Chinese government has asked Alibaba Group to divest its media assets, and that Communist Party officials are increasingly concerned about the tech giant’s influence on domestic public opinion.
The sources said Communist Party officials were alarmed by how extensive Alibaba’s media interests were and asked the company to come up with a plan to significantly reduce its media holdings, but the government did not specify which assets needed to be divested.
Alibaba has amassed huge media assets over the years, covering print, broadcast, digital, social media and advertising. Notable holdings include Weibo and stakes in several popular Chinese digital and print news outlets, plus the South China Morning Post, an English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, several of which are U.S.-listed companies.
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