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Roehl Niño Bautista · · 1 min readReport: Alibaba, Tencent mull easing blocks on each other’s services
“Alibaba and Tencent are considering moves to gradually open up their services to one another, as Beijing’s tech crackdown makes it harder for China’s two online giants to maintain the virtual barriers they have built in recent years,” reported The Wall Street Journal, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
Details:
- Alibaba and Tencent have a great wall around their Chinese tech offerings, forcing their customers to stick within their own ecosystem by blocking their rivals’ products on their own platforms.
- Examples of easing restrictions include Alibaba allowing its online shoppers to use Tencent’s WeChat Pay.
Dive deeper:
- This comes as China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) leads a series of probes into Chinese tech giants. (Read: How China has been clamping down on big tech empires)
- SAMR recently blocked Tencent’s plan to merge two game-streaming giants and ordering the company to release exclusive music rights. The agency also slapped a fine of almost US$390,000 on edtech firms backed by Alibaba and Tencent.
Editing by Miguel Cordon and Eileen C. Ang
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