Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu slammed for how they treat China’s startups

Jia Yueting on the far right at the IT Summit. Photo via Xinhua.

LeEco (formerly called Letv) is one of China’s largest internet companies, but it’s probably also the least well-known of the major players. LeEco founder and CEO Jia Yueting is apparently sick of playing second-fiddle to Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (collectively called the BAT companies), and this past weekend, he went on the offensive.

At the China IT Summit in Shenzhen, Jia appeared on the main stage feature panel with Baidu’s Robin Li and Tencent’s Pony Ma, as well as Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing and China Capital Group CEO Wu Ying. He set himself apart for the pack instantly, wearing a Jobsian casual black ensemble that struck a contrast with the rest of the panel’s formal suits. Then, Jia opened his mouth and really drew a line in the sand.

They are three giant mountains that have left countless startups shadowed in darkness.

“Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are three giant mountains that have left countless startups shadowed in darkness,” he said. “Countless internet startups have been born to one of three fates: being quickly copied by BAT, being acquired by BAT, or being invested in by BAT, which is essentially like being acquired.”

“We think the internet industry has already reached its peak,” Jia continued. “BAT and Apple have already peaked, and the next step is entering the internet ecosystem age, and moving from vertical industries to horizontal cross-market industries.” LeEco, he suggested, is primed to do that better than any of the big BAT companies.

It was a surprisingly sharp statement, given that Jia was sharing the stage with the CEOs of both Baidu and Tencent. Calling BAT “three mountains” might not sound that harsh, but in Chinese business culture direct, to-your-face criticism is relatively rare, especially at this kind of public-facing event. It also stuck out because Jia, while he is a successful internet billionaire, is a bit of a Johnnie-come-lately when compared to guys like Robin Li and Pony Ma, the highest achievers among China’s first generation of internet entrepreneurs.

For the BAT companies, LeEco may be getting increasingly hard to ignore.

Unsurprisingly, Jia’s comments were divisive. He made headlines across China’s tech media, and a Sina Tech column called him “the biggest winner” of the weekend’s summit. But the articles have attracted thousands of comments, and most popular among them are critical of Jia and the LeEco ecosystem model he was promoting.

“LeEco can tell stories better than Baidu, and produce really splendid PPTs, but their ‘super phone’ and ‘super bike’ are crap,” reads one of the most-upvoted comments on the Sina Tech article about Jia’s performance.

Still, for the BAT companies, LeEco may be getting increasingly hard to ignore. It has expanded from its original streaming video focus into a variety of new areas including smartphones, electric cars, and sporting events. Whether it has spread itself too thin remains to be seen – another of Jia’s projects is mired in troubling questions, so it’s not outside of the realm of possibility – but if it can deliver what it promises, it could become the fourth “giant mountain” in China’s internet empire.