Tencent founder Pony Ma was summoned by the Chinese government, an empire of more than $ 700 billion in strong shaking

Pony Ma, founder of Tencent Holdings, China’s largest social networking and gaming company, had a meeting with antitrust authorities in China to discuss compliance, according to an exclusive Reuters source. of this group

The meeting was a clear indicator of China’s unprecedented purge of monopoly – the war that started late last year was directed at the Jack Ma’s empires. By this point, Chinese officials are continuing to target other internet giants like Tencent.

Beijing has pledged to tighten control over major domestic tech firms – both ranked among the world’s largest, most valuable firms. This is due to concerns that they have built up market power, destroyed competition, misused customer data, and violated consumer interests.

Tencent, which owns the WeChat mobile payments and messaging app like Aliabba, is ubiquitous in China. This company is expected to be the second subject to the strict control of the antitrust authorities in China.

The news of the meeting was not released, but it happened shortly before Tencent released its fourth quarter 2020 report on Wednesday. Analysts predict that the company’s quarterly profit will. A 42% increase, though, perhaps investors will only focus on the troubles the company is having with the government.

Tencent’s capitalization has lost $ 170 billion so far since its peak in January.

Pony Ma, who has barely been in the media for more than a year is said to have been in Beijing this month for China’s National Assembly Session.

The founder of Tencent is a member of the parliament of Guangdong Province, where the company is located, and he was summoned to attend a meeting with the Chief of Market Surveillance and Control (SAMR) Gan Lin and senior officials. other.

Tencent and SAMR are not currently responding to this issue.

At the meeting, the two sides discussed how Tencent, the most valuable stock on the Hong Kong stock exchange with a capitalization of $ 776 billion, could better comply with antitrust regulations, a source said. .

Wu Zhenguo, Chairman of Antitrust Prevention of SAMR who also attended the meeting highlighted concerns about Tencent’s business activities and asked the group to better comply with antitrust regulations.

Reportedly, SAMR has been collecting information and reviewing monopolies such as WeChat and how this super app harms fair competition and acquires smaller competitors.

It is not clear whether SAMR officials have only identified specific Tencent businesses as non-compliance with antitrust regulations.

Tencent is currently the world’s largest video game company by revenue.