China’s antitrust regulator fined some of the tech giants including Tencent (0700), Baidu, ByteDance and Didi Chuxing for past acquisitions and investments as it stepped up its crackdown on the sector, Bloomberg reports. Pony Ma’s Tencent is being fined 500,000 yuan (HK$600,000) for its 2018 investment in online education app Yuanfudao, according to a statement by the State Administration for Market Regulation on Friday. The regulator had last year issued fines against Alibaba as well as Tencent unit China Literature for similar violations. Didi Mobility Pte, a unit of ridehailing giant Didi Chuxing, and Japan’s SoftBank were also issued fines of 500,000 yuan each – the maximum penalty possible – for setting up a joint venture without permission. ByteDance said the joint venture has since been canceled.

Source: The Standard March 12, 2021 08:36 UTC