The Alibaba Group signage is seen during the Singles Day Global Shopping Festival 11.11 at its headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, November 11, 2020.
Aly Song | Reuters
BEIJING – Alibaba’s shares fell after U.S. markets closed on Wednesday when reports emerged that the Chinese government is conducting an anti-monopoly investigation on the technology giant.
CNBC has yet to confirm the information, made by Bloomberg and the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
The news comes in the wake of a growing – and largely unexpected – push by Chinese authorities to control their biggest technology companies through regulatory actions.
The State Administration of Market Regulation in China opened an investigation into Alibaba on monopoly practices, Xinhua said on Thursday. The main problem mentioned by the report was a practice that forces traders to choose one of the two platforms, rather than being able to work with both.
Alibaba’s shares traded in New York fell more than 3% in after-hours trading.
Separately, Alibaba’s affiliated Ant announced that it had received a notice on Thursday from regulators for a meeting. Last month, regulators abruptly suspended the massive financial technology giant’s initial public offering just days before the planned listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
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