In terms of who is the richest in China and which company is the biggest, Jack Ma often competes with Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma. Jack Ma with Alibaba and Ma Huateng with Tencent. Now the two have the potential to suffer the same fate before the Chinese government.
Jack Ma is even worse, it’s been about 10 months he hasn’t appeared in public and his company has been subject to strict fines and regulations. Ma Huateng is still free, but Tencent seems to be increasingly being targeted by the government.
Recently, the prosecutor’s office in Beijing initiated a civil lawsuit against WeChat, Tencent’s main messaging service. The reason is that the ‘youth mode’ feature on WeChat is considered incompatible with legal rules to protect minors.
The lawsuit was filed in a Beijing court against Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems. Not stating in detail why ‘youth mode’ violates the law, the article is that this feature prevents young people from accessing payment services on WeChat or other sensitive features.
Tencent says it will investigate. “We will research and scrutinize the functionality of WeChat Youth Mode, accept suggestions from users humbly and honestly respond to civil lawsuits,” Tencent said.
Last week, China's state media, Xinhua, criticized online gaming, even calling it an electronic medicine. This brought Tencent shares down 11% when the Xinhua article was published. Ma Huateng's wealth also decreased to USD 3.2 billion or in the range of Rp 45.8 trillion.
In the article, Xinhua assessed that online gaming has posed a problem for young people such as addiction and even dubbed it an online drug. “Some students spend up to eight hours each day playing the Honor of Kings game from Tencent,” they said.
Earlier, Tencent shares also fell as Chinese authorities asked them to terminate licensing agreements with music labels in various countries. The move was taken because Tencent too much dominates the country’s online music industry with an 80%market share.
Tags
NEWS & FACT
