China’s internet walled gardens may be cracking but users face a long wait for the bricks to come tumbling down

China’s billion-plus internet users face daily hassles in accessing online platforms and services run by different companies every day - Beijing wants this to end

Tech companies are still figuring out ways they can comply with the government’s push for interoperability while at the same time protecting their turf

Reading Time:6 minutes

Published: 10:00am, 13 Nov 2021Updated: 10:12am, 13 Nov 2021

Shenzhen resident Chen Channing frequently receives blocks of gibberish code via his WeChat app – and he knows exactly what to do with it.

He copies the codes, opens Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao shopping app on his phone, pastes them in, and voila – links to purchase selected products appear.

But lately Chen has noticed that some of the codes now include links that open directly within WeChat, the supper app operated by Tencent Holdings. To his disappointment though, the links do not always work and some still require him to copy and paste into an external browser.

“It’s really inconvenient. All I need is to be able to see a message, why is it so hard?” Chen said in frustration, when he related his experience to the South China Morning Post recently. Alibaba owns the Post.

Chen is among a billion internet users in China who face daily hassles in accessing online platforms and services run by different companies everyday. But these so-called “walled gardens” that have long separated the online sphere into exclusive ecosystems controlled by the likes of Tencent and Alibaba are beginning to crack, and it is not an accident.

Over the past year Beijing has fired a fussilade of regulatory missiles at Big Tech, aimed at stamping out monopolistic practices, securing private data and encouraging greater competition with the country’s cyberspace. And the measures are beginning to hit their target.