Top antitrust regulator the State Administration for Market Regulation issued sweeping draft rules on Aug 17 governing online competition as the cabinet updated rules for operators of information infrastructure that experts say target data-rich firms.Traditional e-commerce has been one of the biggest targets with a record fine of US$2.75bil in April for Alibaba over its “choose one from two” feature that bars vendors from selling on rival sites.In May, rival JD.
Social media giant ByteDance laid off staff in its education unit, Reuters reported, while online tutoring company VIPKid stopped lessons by foreigners.In November, shortly before what would have been a record share sale by Ant Group Co Ltd, draft rules by banking regulators set tighter controls on online lending, where the company was a giant player.
Provincial governments’ later curbs on bitcoin mining unleashed a wave of shutdowns, with state-linked tabloidIn July, the housing ministry and seven regulators took aim at the property management sector with a notice that chipped more than a tenth off the CSI 300 Real Estate sub-index.