Chinese govt asks Alibaba to curtail media assets, says report

Discussions over the matter have been held since early this year, the Wall Street Journal report said, adding that officials were shocked at how expansive Alibaba's media interests have become.

China's government has asked Alibaba Group Holding Ltd to dispose of its media assets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

A scooter rider passes a logo outside the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. headquarters in Hangzhou, China, on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. Alibaba Co-Founder Jack Ma resurfaced for the first time since China�s government began clamping down on his business empire nearly three months ago, appearing in a live-streamed video that sent Alibaba's stock soaring but left plenty of unanswered questions about the billionaire�s fate. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg (Bloomberg)

Discussions over the matter have been held since early this year, the report said, adding that officials were shocked at how expansive Alibaba's media interests have become.

The company, whose mainstay business is online retail, has stakes in the Twitter-like Weibo platform and several news outlets including the South China Morning Post.

Such influence is seen as posing serious challenges to the Chinese Communist Party and its own powerful propaganda apparatus, the Journal's sources were quoted as saying.

Alibaba did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.