China bans tech companies from blocking links to competing services

Chinese tech companies such as Tencent, ByteDance and Alibaba are no longer allowed to block links to competitor websites and services. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and IT decided on Monday.

The practices targeted by the Chinese ministry are common in China, Reuters news agency reported. Tencent, for example, prohibits users of its WeChat service from sharing links to videos on competitor ByteDance’s Douyin platform. Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall, in turn, do not support Tencent’s WeChat Pay payment service.

A spokesman for the Chinese ministry, Zhao Zhiguo, told Reuters news agency that the decision was passed to protect consumers’ user experience. Restricting access to competitors’ Internet links for no good reason “degrades the user experience, harms users’ rights and disrupts the market order,” Zhiguo said. The spokesperson added that the ministry has received several reports and complaints from users after it launched an investigation into these practices in China’s tech sector in July.

“We are currently guiding relevant companies to conduct research and implement improvements,” Zhiguo said. Several Chinese tech giants indicate that they support Beijing’s decision. Tencent, for example, reports that it will implement the necessary adjustments ‘in phases’, but does not specify when this should be done. Alibaba also indicates that it will cooperate with the ministry.