BEIJING :China's industry ministry said on Monday it has told the country's internet companies to end their long-standing practice of blocking each other's links on their sites, vowing to take measures against those firms that fail to fall in line.
The government's campaign has wiped billions of dollars off the market value of some of the country's largest companies, and left investors on edge over which sector may be next to be targeted. The new Beijing instruction came after the 21st Century Business Herald newspaper reported on Saturday that China's industry ministry told tech giants including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd to stop blocking each other's website links from their platforms.
Tencent, for example, restricts users from sharing content from ByteDance-owned short video app Douyin on Tencent's instant messaging apps WeChat and QQ. In February, Douyin filed a complaint https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-bytedance-idUSKBN2A2153 with a Beijing court saying that it constituted as monopolistic behaviour.
While CCP China is undergoing the latest round of 'nationalisation', certain investors in the West think they can make big money in China.
Sell first talk later.
Internet companies or intranet companies?