Can Chinese big tech learn to love big brother?
Can Chinese big tech learn to love big brother?
The government's crackdown eases, but the damage has been done.
The Economist,
JACK MA, CHINA'S most famous entrepreneur, has not been one to mince his words about the role of government and business. At a meeting with corporate leaders in Bali in 2018 he told the audience that it is not the government that makes business and innovation happen. That is the work of entrepreneurs, he insisted: "They have the ideas and dreams."
A harsh crackdown that began in late 2020 on China's largest consumer-internet groups has made such inspiring sentiments harder to sustain. For the first time the leading firms are suffering slowing revenue growth. Alibaba's revenues rose by just 10% in the final three months of 2021, marking its slowest quarterly expansion since going public in 2014. Tencent, an internet-services and video-game Goliath, notched 8% revenue growth in the same period, its slowest rate since being a public company. JD.com, another e-commerce group, announced solid revenues but Richard Liu, its founder and chairman, resigned in April, one of many high-profile entrepreneurs to do so in the past couple of years. Although Meituan, a delivery giant, reported revenue growth of 30%, local media reported it plans to axe up to 20% of its employees in core business units. Shares in those four companies, along with Pinduoduo, yet another e-commerce group, have shed about $1.5trn in value since February of last year.
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