Alibaba Group signage will be unveiled at the company’s 11.11 Singles’ Day Shopping Festival at their headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, on November 11, 2020.
Aly Song | Reuters
BEIJING – Alibaba shares fell after US markets closed on Wednesday when reports surfaced that the Chinese government is conducting an antimonopoly probe into the technology giant.
CNBC has not yet confirmed the reports, which were made by Bloomberg and the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
The news comes on the heels of an increasing – and largely unexpected – push from the Chinese authorities to rein in their largest technology companies through legislative action.
China’s state administration for market regulation has launched an investigation into Alibaba due to monopolistic practices, Xinhua said on Thursday. The primary issue, as the said report was, was a practice that forces merchants to choose one of two platforms instead of being able to work with both.
New York-traded shares of Alibaba fell more than 3% in after-hours trading.
Separately, Alibaba-affiliated Ant announced that it received a notification from the regulators of a meeting on Thursday. Last month, regulators abruptly suspended the financial technology giant’s massive first IPO just days ahead of the planned IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
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