Ma Huateng, founder of China’s largest social media and video game company Tencent Holdings, met with antitrust regulators this month, Reuters said on March 24, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, suggesting that authorities may soon target other Internet giants for antitrust action after Jack Ma‘s Alibaba bore the brunt last year.
Ma, who has been out of the public eye for more than a year and is a deputy to the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress, where Tencent is headquartered, visited the office of the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration after attending the “two sessions” in Beijing this month and asked to meet with Gan Lin, the agency’s deputy director, and other senior officials, the sources said.
Sources said Tencent is expected to be the next company to face stricter anti-monopoly regulation as authorities tighten regulations on large technology companies. The State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration is working to gather information and investigate WeChat‘s monopolistic practices because of the popularity of its apps such as WeChat instant messaging and mobile payments in China.
Wu Zhenguo, director of the anti-monopoly bureau of China’s State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration, who was also in attendance at the meeting, reportedly expressed direct concerns about some of Tencent Holdings’ business operations and asked Tencent to comply with anti-monopoly regulations.
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