Anti-Monopoly Investigation Launched Against Alibaba

On Thursday, Chinese regulators announced that an anti-monopoly investigation has been launched against Alibaba Group, the first of its kind for a Chinese tech company.

In particular, the market regulator will focus on Alibaba’s policy of “choose one of two”, whereby merchants are required to sign cooperation pacts which prohibit them from selling their products on rival platforms.

The news comes a month after regulators forced the suspension of Ant Group’s IPO, Alibaba’s financial technology spinoff, which was co-founded by Alibaba founder Jack Ma. The IPO was set to be the world’s largest.

This new probe is part of a crackdown on anti-competitive behaviour on the Chinese internet, amid regulator concerns of the amount of influence tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent have amassed.

Both moves against Jack Ma’s business interests come after a speech Ma gave in Shanghai where he blasted China’s regulatory system, accusing it of stifling innovation.

On Thursday morning, Alibaba shares fell almost 9% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange ahead of the New York Stock Exchange’s opening, where Alibaba shares are also listed.

Depicted: Admiral Markets MetaTrader 5 - Alibaba.com Ltd Daily Chart. Date Range: 3 March 2016 - 23 December 2020. Date Captured: 24 December 2020. Past performance is not necessarily an indication of future performance.

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