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Roehl Niño Bautista · · 1 min readReport: Chinese regulator halts Tencent’s merger of video game firms
“China’s market regulator on Saturday said it would block Tencent Holdings’ plan to merge the country’s top two video game-streaming sites, Huya and DouYu, on antitrust grounds,” reported Reuters, citing the State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR).
Details:
- Huya and DouYu are China’s top two players in the video game livestreaming scene with a combined market share of 70%. Tencent is Huya’s biggest shareholder and it also owns a third of DouYu.
- Their merger would “eliminate or restrict fair competition,” with Tencent going from jointly controlling DouYu to managing the merged entity, said SAMR. Tencent already has a 40% share in the online games market.
Dive deeper:
- China has used the SAMR to crack down on what it considers as tech monopolies.
- Tencent proposed the merger in April last year with Huya agreeing to buy DouYu in October 2020. The Chinese internet giant has been aggressive in its investments, which has rubbed off on Sea Group. (Read: Sea Group wants to build a super-app empire. Here’s how Tencent did it)
Editing by Collin Furtado and September Grace Mahino
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