Red envelope fight flares among Internet giants

By Meng Jing and Li Xiang (China Daily) Updated: 2015-02-13 07:16

According to the People's Bank of China, the central bank, mobile payments have grown strongly, with turnover soaring by 134 percent year-on-year to 22.59 trillion yuan last year.

Li Zhi, senior analyst at Analysys International, said the battle between Internet companies has seen the blocking of rivals' services become a common strategy.

"As Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent increase investment in various small companies, competition in China's Internet world can be compared to an ecosystem taking on an ecosystem, rather than product versus product," Li said.

Some legal experts said the action taken by Tencent and Alibaba in blocking each other's services could amount to unfair competition and jeopardizing consumers' rights.

You Yunting, a lawyer at DeBund Law Offices in Shanghai, said Tencent is not justified in blocking the services of Alipay on its WeChat platform. This has caused inconvenience for users and runs the risk of jeopardizing consumers' right to a free choice and fair trade, You said.

"Tencent initially cited 'security reasons' for blocking the services of its rival and then claimed it was viral marketing. These inconsistent statements have violated consumers' right to know," You was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency.

Francisco Martinez, a partner at international law firm Uria Menendez, said the Chinese Internet market is dominated by Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

"The aggressive practices they are using to conquer the market have not yet had a significant negative impact on consumer rights.

"At the end of the day, Chinese consumers still have many options to choose from. We can rest assured that if companies are breaching the law and having a negative impact on a great number of consumers, the State would likely intervene to safeguard the public interest," Martinez said.