The chairman and CEO of e-commerce giant
Alibaba Group praised Chinese regulators in a
possible attempt to repair ties after the stock
market debut of its former financial services arm
was suspended following criticism of them by
billionaire Alibaba founder Jack Ma.
Beijing’s announcement of proposed guidelines
to regulate internet companies is “timely and
necessary,” Daniel Zhang said in a speech at
the government-organized World Internet
Conference in Wuzhen, a town in Zhejiang
province, just south of Shanghai.
While Zhang did not specify which regulations
he was referring to, China on Nov. 10 announced
proposed guidelines on how anti-competition
would apply to internet companies. They
highlighted potential areas regulators might
target, including exclusive contracts, which are
common practices used by e-commerce firms
and other internet companies.
The move to regulate monopolistic power of
China’s technology giants sparked a sell-off in
Chinese internet stocks. Alibaba’s stock price