China’s Tech Sector ‘self-correct’ in fear of repercussions

China’s tech sector hustles to free itself from trustbusters’ noose by self-correcting its behavior in a bid to get ahead of any impending regulatory rage from Beijing.   

The country’s tech sector has played its latest card in what seems to be a never-ending battle between authorities and the industry. Some of China’s biggest companies will no longer delay any reforms it might need to impose on its business plans as it began initiating its own strategy of levying in-corporate restrictions.

One of the biggest names that decided to march down that road is KE Holdings, China’s real estate behemoth that mostly focuses on creating compatible matches between buyers and sellers.

Earlier this year, the real estate firm discreetly closed its VIP services. These services were released to the platform’s userbase under the pretense that the company can promise its users of a hasty property sellers’ turnaround in exchange for exclusive listing.

KE Holdings – which is currently under Beijing’s spotlight – went forth with the decision to shut down their new offering since it was not supported by the government’s regulatory requests as a recent attempt to be more cooperative and demonstrate voluntary initiative on the matter.

“It wasn’t a big business, but it had the potential to become one,” said an anonymous source close to the company.

KE declared in a statement to Reuters that any enhancement the firm is trying to implement in its work strategy is “in compliance with government regulations and aimed at providing better services.”

Chinese media titan Tencent Holdings Ltd echoed KE Holding’s footsteps by welcoming new measures to minimize the amount of time kids spend on its famous video game “Honor of Kings.”

This came as a direct follow-up after Tencent’s shares experienced a crushing branding by a state media article that labelled online games as “spiritual opium.”

“Everyone is trying to get a clear read on the new normal and is resetting as fast as possible,” said Jeffery Towson, host of the Asia Tech Strategy podcast.

“Nobody is doing ‘move fast and break things’ anymore. Nobody is using their market power too aggressively. Everyone is aligning their strategies more closely with the government’s priorities,” he added.

From the looks of it, Chinese tech companies’ growing passion and appetite to monopolize the field has been relatively tamed since the sector is working on regulating itself out of fear of repercussions.