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Explainer | A timeline of China’s 32-month Big Tech crackdown that killed the world’s largest IPO and wiped out trillions in value

  • Since Beijing quashed Ant Group’s IPO in November 2020, the upheaval in China’s tech sector has hit Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan and Didi
  • A nearly US$1 billion fine levelled against Ant Group this month has been taken as a sign that the crackdown has finally come to an end

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A nearly US$1billion fine against fintech giant Ant Group this month signalled the end of a tech industry crackdown that started when Beijing quashed the company’s IPO at the end of 2020. Photo: AP
Lilian Zhang

Chinese authorities initiated a regulatory storm against the country’s Big Tech firms in late 2020 out of concerns that the country’s major internet platforms were becoming too large and powerful.

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Beijing’s discipline of the tech sector wiped out trillions of dollars in market value from Chinese tech companies, kneecapped one of the most dynamic sectors in the world’s second largest economy, and accelerated US-China decoupling. As a result, China’s large tech companies, which once rivalled their US counterparts in size, are now much smaller.

Here are the major milestones of China’s Big Tech crackdown that kicked off 32 months ago.

November 2020

An initial public offering from Ant Group, which would have been the world’s largest on record, was called off at the last minute in Shanghai and Hong Kong, sending shock waves through the global investment community. The IPO was quashed after a controversial speech the previous month from Alibaba Group Holding co-founder Jack Ma. Ant is the fintech affiliate of Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.

China’s financial watchdogs rushed to bring Ant’s operations under the purview of conventional financial regulations, forcing the tech giant to undergo internal restructuring.

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Later in the month, Chinese authorities summoned 27 major internet companies, including Tencent Holdings, food delivery giant Meituan, as well as TikTok owner ByteDance and Alibaba, lecturing them to correct alleged monopolistic practices, unfair competition and counterfeiting. China’s antitrust watchdog, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), rushed an antitrust guideline to rein in internet-based monopolies.
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