Our reporter Xie Ruolin

  On January 5, the State Administration of Market Supervision announced 13 cases of administrative penalties involving Internet giants such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Bilibili. The companies involved in each case were fined 500,000 yuan.

  At the close of the day, the Hang Seng Technology Index of Hong Kong stocks closed down 4.63%, Bilibili fell 10.63%, Tencent fell 4.31%, and Alibaba fell 2.05%.

In this regard, the reporter contacted the above three companies, but as of press time, no positive response has been received.

  A brokerage analyst specializing in the TMT industry told a reporter from the Securities Daily: "The signal is already obvious, and the venture capital wave of Internet giants will become a thing of the past."

  Concentration of operators will face penalties

  Judging from the penalty decision, the above-mentioned enterprises have all been subject to administrative penalties for failing to declare the illegal implementation of the concentration of undertakings in accordance with the law when acquiring equity in other companies or establishing joint ventures.

  According to the "Anti-Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China", operator concentration refers to the following situations: merger of operators; The control of the operator may exert a decisive influence on other operators.

  The penalty decision shows that Article 48 of the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China stipulates that “If an operator violates the provisions of this law to implement concentration, the Anti-monopoly Law Enforcement Agency of the State Council shall order it to stop the implementation of the concentration, dispose of shares or assets within a specified time, and transfer business within a specified time. As well as taking other necessary measures to restore the state before the concentration, a fine of less than 500,000 yuan may be imposed."

  Attorney Zhao Ming, a partner of Beijing Zhongtong Law Firm, told reporters: "Concentration of operators is a form of monopolistic behavior, which will greatly increase the market power and dominant position of a certain operator, and form a monopolistic market structure in the industry. Under this circumstance, the operator may abuse its dominant market position, infringe on the interests of other operators and consumers, and thereby disrupt the order of competition in the market."

  "In the past, China's anti-monopoly supervision was lagging, and this situation will be completely improved in the future." Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, told reporters that the amendment to the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China has been introduced. The penalties for concentration of undertakings have been greatly strengthened, and the relevant cases involved in this penalty still follow the previous penalty standards. According to the new legal provisions, the penalties for relevant cases in the future will no longer be limited to 500,000 yuan, but will be based on business operations. For 10% of last year’s sales, that would be a huge fine.

This punishment has played a warning role. The Internet has now developed to the 3.0 stage. The implementation of anti-monopoly is not only conducive to the protection of users' rights and interests, but also conducive to the order of market competition. It is also conducive to encouraging innovation and returning to the essence of Internet economic development.

  "Factions" on the Internet are no longer

  The Internet arena is quietly changing.

In 2008, Tencent and Alibaba successively established the Investment and M&A Department and the Strategic Investment Department, and the era of corporate venture capital in China Internet officially kicked off.

The most representative one is that in 2015, several merger negotiations between Didi and Kuaidi failed, and the "big guys behind the scenes" Tencent and Ali came to the battle.

  According to Tianyancha APP data, Tencent Investment has a team of more than 60 people. Since its establishment, there have been 1398 investment incidents and 13 managed funds; 6 Alibaba capital management funds, 31 foreign investment funds, and 494 public investment incidents. There were 92 public investments.

This has also made "Tencent" and "Ali" become important labels in the Internet arena.

  At the end of 2020, the Central Economic Work Conference proposed "strengthening anti-monopoly and preventing the disorderly expansion of capital." Under the anti-monopoly signal, it can also be seen that the commercial landscape of Internet giants is gradually adjusting.

  In September 2021, Ali withdrew from Mango Super Media, which had been a shareholder for less than a year.

Soochow Securities Research Report stated that Alibaba's investment involves e-commerce, cultural media, cloud technology, logistics, new retail and other industries, and it holds more shares in some representative companies in the industry; as the regulatory review is intensified, It is expected that Ali will gradually reduce its investment in cultural media and other industries.

  On December 23, 2021, Tencent announced that it will distribute approximately 460 million shares of JD.com to shareholders in the form of an interim dividend.

After the dividend, Tencent’s shareholding in JD will be reduced from 17% to 2.3%, and will no longer be the largest shareholder. At the same time, Tencent President Liu Chiping will also step down as a director of JD.com.

  Almost at the same time, a business change occurred in an affiliated company of Zhihu, and Tencent and Sogou, which was acquired by Tencent, withdrew from the company's shareholders.

  "It is foreseeable that in the future, Tencent and Ali will gradually withdraw from the'alliance' company. No matter which method is adopted, there will be no more disputes between the Chinese Internet arena and the Internet giants will return to their main business and compete in an orderly manner." The aforementioned analysts said that short-term pains are inevitable for companies, but for the entire Internet industry, a new business pattern will evolve under the huge space.

(Securities Daily)