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7 Jan, 2021 Author Soon Chen KangJiayue Huang
China s crackdown on internet companies, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., is unlikely to affect their burgeoning healthcare businesses and could transform the medical sector into a key battleground for e-commerce and tech companies.
COVID-19 and related restrictions on movement have sparked rapid growth in the adoption of online pharmacy and medical services in China in 2020. Online services will continue to disrupt the space due to favorable regulations and the ability of the companies to facilitate easy access to consultations and medicines, especially in rural areas and among the elderly, industry observers said.
Once hailed as the standard-bearers of China’s economic and technological ascendancy, Alibaba and rivals like Tencent Holdings Ltd now face increasing pressure from regulators worried about the speed with which they’re amassing hundreds of millions of users and gaining influence over almost every aspect of daily life. Alibaba has shed more than $230 billion from its peak, battered by the deepening scrutiny and allegations of monopolistic practices at the crown jewel of billionaire Jack Ma’s empire.
Shares in Tencent and Alibaba rival JD.com Inc slid roughly 2% in Hong Kong, while food delivery giant Meituan tumbled more than 4% as investors feared the antitrust net might widen further. Affiliate Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd. posted its biggest two-day slump since July 2015. The People’s Daily the Communist Party mouthpiece ran a commentary over the weekend warning Alibaba’s peers to take the antitrust investigation into Alibaba as a chance to lift their o
Alibaba Probe Stirs Worry About What’s Next for Chinese Tech Bloomberg 12/29/2020 Coco Liu
(Bloomberg) Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. led a second day of frenetic selling among China’s largest tech firms, driven by fears that antitrust scrutiny will spread beyond Jack Ma’s internet empire and engulf the country’s most powerful corporations.
Alibaba and its three largest rivals Tencent Holdings Ltd., food delivery giant Meituan and JD.com Inc. have shed nearly $200 billion in Hong Kong over the two sessions since Thursday when regulators revealed an investigation into alleged monopolistic practices at Ma’s signature company. That marked the formal start of the Communist Party’s crackdown on not just Alibaba but also, potentially, the wider and increasingly influential tech sphere.
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“The Chinese government is putting more pressure or wants to have more control on the tech firms,” Jackson Wong, asset management director at Amber Hill Capital, said. “There is still very big selling pressure on firms like Alibaba, Tencent or Meituan. These companies have been growing at a pace deemed by Beijing as too fast and have scales that are too big.”
It’s unclear what concessions regulators may try to wring from Alibaba. Under the existing Antitrust Law – now undergoing revisions to include the internet industry for the first time – Beijing can fine violators up to 10 per cent of their revenue. In Alibaba’s case, that could mean a levy of as much as $7.8bn.