More than 20 Chinese tech giants are committed to ending unfair competition

More than 20 top Chinese technology companies have publicly pledged to adhere to antitrust principles.

ByteDance, Baidu and CTrip are committed to ensuring fair competition. Photo: Reuters More than 20 leading Chinese technology companies have publicly pledged to adhere to antitrust principles, after regulators asked them to pay attention to the record penalty for the “giant” e-commerce. Alibaba. In a series of separate statements published by the China Market Regulatory Authority on April 14-15, some of the country’s biggest tech brands – including ByteDance, Baidu and CTrip – pledged will “ensure fair competition”, “do not abuse a dominant market position” and “do not conduct unfair pricing practices”. The pledges come after regulators summoned 34 technology companies on April 13 and asked them to “rectify” any unfair non-competitive practices, and pay attention to in the case of Alibaba. Companies have one month for full reform, after conducting internal audits and adjusting practices that compromise fair competition. Ride-hailing service Didi, video streaming platforms Kuaishou and Bilibili, as well as e-commerce company JD.com were among the parties that have made a public commitment since that meeting. JD.com said it will not force “choose one of the two” behavior on its retailers – where merchants are required to work on only one platform, not on a competitor platform. . This is the policy that Alibaba used to apply. In its statement, Didi pledged that unless necessary for regular business operations, the company will not illegally collect or misuse customers’ personal information. Last weekend, Chinese regulators fined Alibaba up to $ 2.78 billion after a months-long investigation found the company abused its dominant position in the market. Alibaba and JD.com, along with games and messaging app giant Tencent, have greatly benefited from the increasingly technological lifestyles in China and the absence of major U.S. competitors. But as these platforms with hundreds of millions of regular users are growing, public opinion is increasingly concerned about the problem of user data that these companies collect over the long term. According to observers, China has put domestic technology companies on the target to limit the reach of private companies to the daily financial activities of its people. That move could curb their dominance.