An arm of the Cyberspace Administration of China took 1% of an Alibaba digital media subsidiary in Guangzhou on 4 January, according to corporate database Qichacha. The company’s media portfolio includes businesses such as streaming platform Youku and mobile browser UC Web.
“To me, the news is slightly positive,” said Banny Lam, head of research at Ceb International Inv Corp. “The two have been struggling with the issues of crackdown in recent years. For both Alibaba and Tencent, the government stake could potentially help them to get greenlights to do businesses in new areas and lower the risks of further clampdown by the regulators.”
Tencent dipped more than 2% while Alibaba was down as much as 1.6% in a largely unchanged Hong Kong market. Chinese state organs have for years invested billions of dollars into high-profile private firm startups from Didi Global to Jack Ma’s Ant Group. In recent years, as Beijing clamped down on every sphere of the internet, official agencies have also taken nominal stakes of typically 1% — a golden share that in theory allows Beijing todirectors or sway and veto important company decisions.
A Tencent spokesperson declined to comment, while an Alibaba spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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