A food delivery courier for Meituan rides a motorcycle in Beijing, China. The investigation into Meituan signals that the regulatory crackdown is now moving beyond Ma’s empire. Bloomberg
China’s government has expanded its antitrust crackdown beyond Jack Ma’s technology empire, launching an investigation into suspected monopolistic practices by food-delivery behemoth Meituan.
The State Administration for Market Regulation announced the investigation, which began recently, in a statement Monday. The antitrust watchdog is looking into alleged abuses including forced exclusivity arrangements known as “pick one of two”. The company said it will actively cooperate with the probe and step up efforts to comply with regulations. Operations are currently normal, it added in a statement.
Chinese State-owned Banks Are Advertising Digital Yuan
6 hours ago by Benjamin Godfrey · 3 min read
Photo: Depositphotos
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While China has not yet announced when it wants to officially launch the e-CNY nationwide, it is set to continue the pilot tests during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
A recent Reuters report has revealed that six big Chinese State-owned banks in Shanghai are advertising the Digital Yuan ahead of a May 5 Shopping Festival in the city. The banks are reportedly canvassing for the Digital Yuan (e-CNY) which is the country’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) project by asking users to download the digital wallets that support the new currency.
Xi’s next target in tech crackdown is China’s vast reams of data
By unleashing the data market’s value and potential, the Chinese president is positioning
the nation to become a leader in transforming the world economy
By Colum Murphy / Bloomberg
With Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) targeting China’s massive tech giants, the big question now is how he would get them to share key data as part of a sweeping plan to transform the world’s second-biggest economy.
Until recently, China’s megafirms, such as Jack Ma’s (馬雲) Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd, have operated in a similar way to US counterparts Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc, harnessing user data to refine an expanding array of digital services. Since more data lead to better products, the tech platforms often become natural monopolies giving them enormous wealth and power that also opens the door for abuses.
Chinese companies are listing in the US at the fastest pace ever, brushing off tensions between the world’s two biggest economies and the continued risk of being kicked off US exchanges.
Firms from the mainland and Hong Kong have raised US$6.6 billion through initial public offerings (IPO) in the US this year, a record start to a year and an eightfold increase from the same period last year, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
The largest IPO is the US$1.6 billion listing of e-cigarette maker RLX Technology Inc (霧芯科技), followed by the US$947 million offering of software company Tuya Inc (塗鴉科技).
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