China’s internet giants must step up opening their ‘walled gardens’,

“In the future, internet companies need to be more open-minded and inclusive to promote truly win-win cooperation in the industry,” the Securities Times article said.

Increased collaboration between China’s major internet companies are expected to not only benefit consumers, but help further expand the industry, according to state media. Photo: Shutterstock

While China’s gross domestic product rose by 5.2 per cent year on year in 2023, the world’s second-largest economy still faced mounting concerns this year including waning investor confidence, a protracted property market slump and a weak private sector.

“Internet companies need to leverage each other to face the market pressures together,” the Securities Times article said.

Tencent allows Douyin to air Honour of Kings videos as ByteDance exits gaming

Under that deal, Tencent authorised Douyin to distribute its video content and clarify copyright rules for users to produce modifications and adaptations. As a result, users of ByteDance-owned platforms Douyin, Xigua Video and Jinri Toutiao will be able to produce derivative works based on Tencent-owned videos.

There have been other cases of collaboration between rival internet platform operators over the years,

In November, Alibaba Group Holding’s grocery chain Freshippo opened a store on rival e-commerce giant JD.com. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

Beijing wants to smash online walls but Big Tech treads carefully

In November 2021, Tencent opened WeChat to third-party online links including those of Douyin and Taobao.

In September that same year, Alibaba started allowing consumers to use Tencent’s WeChat Pay as a payment option on a number of its platforms including food delivery platform Ele.me, video-streaming platform Youku, online ticketing platform Damai and cross-border e-commerce platform Kaola.

The news is published by EMEA Tribune & SCMPFollow our WhatsApp verified Channel