The boss of Tencent Holdings, Pony Ma, is said to have met with anti-monopoly supervisory officials this month to discuss the congregation’s compliance with the prevailing regulations.
This report was first published by Reuters by citing three sources with direct knowledge of the matter, compiled Wednesday (24/3/2021).
The meeting was cited as the most concrete indicator of China’s unprecedented anti-monopoly crackdown. It started last year with investigating Jack Ma’s business empire.
The Chinese government has pledged to strengthen surveillance of China’s tech giants, citing concerns it has built up market forces that stifle competition, misuse consumer data and violate consumer rights.
Tencent, whose messaging and payment application WeChat is widely used by Chinese citizens, was named next to answer antitrust regulatory questions, the three said.
Tencent Hasn’t Provided Comments
Pony Ma, who rarely gives media interviews and has been out of sight of the public for more than a year, was in Beijing this month for China’s annual parliamentary meeting and visited the offices of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) a week earlier, according to the sources.
Tencent took the initiative to meet SAMR deputy head Gan Lin and other senior officials, the three said. Until this news was published, Tencent and SAMR did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
At the meeting, the two sides discussed how Tencent could better comply with antitrust rules, two people said.
Wu Zhenguo, head of the anti-monopoly bureau of SAMR, who was also present at the meeting. He expressed concern about some of Tencent’s business practices, and asked the group to comply with anti-competitive rules, one of them said.
SAMR is currently gathering information and looking at monopolistic practices by WeChat, and how the super app is likely to have suppressed fair competition and suppressed smaller competitors, another source said.
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