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Inside China Tech: China’s Clubhouse ups and downs, Huawei’s Biden call, and antitrust rules
- Surprisingly for many, Clubhouse was available for mainland users, that is until Mandarin-language discussions on the app veered into usually censored areas
- In the private sector, the new antitrust rules are providing fresh ammunition in ongoing feuds between China’s internet giants
Clubhouse: Losing something before you had it
In case you hadn’t heard, Clubhouse, an audio-only real time chat app, is the next big thing. In private beta since last year, the San Francisco-based app gained notoriety last week when Tesla-founder and tech rock star Elon Musk made an appearance on the app.
Surprisingly for many, Clubhouse was available for mainland users, that is until Mandarin-language discussions on the app veered into usually censored areas like the detention camps in Xinjiang, cross-strait relations with Taiwan, and the National Security Law of Hong Kong.
As those discussions gained notice, many also speculated on whether and when the app would be blocked by Chinese authorities. They got their answer only days later when mainland users suddenly found that not only could they not access the service without a VPN, but they also could not register for new accounts via SMS verification.
Almost all, whether they could access the app via VPN or not, mourned the loss of what was considered a precious opportunity to speak freely outside the China censorship bubble. However, not everyone fell in love for the political discussion, instead they were impressed by the quality and tolerance of those discussions.
Now after the blocking, many are wondering if a “Clubhouse of China” will emerge. Experts, however, are split: some believe we’ll see a ‘war of a thousand Clubhouses’ while others believe that the killer feature, openness, of Clubhouse can’t be replicated by mainland developers because of the tight censorship regime.
Clubhouse provider: the internet is ready for true real-time interaction
Clubhouse provider: the internet is ready for true real-time interaction
The company providing the technical foundation for Clubhouse, Agora, believes that what it calls “livecast” will become the next wave of social media around the world.
US-China tech war: Calls for rationality
On Tuesday, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said that his company is urging the Biden administration to create a more open policy toward Chinese companies at a round table meeting with select media in Taiyuan. This was the first time he made a public statement about the new US president.
Just one day later, Huawei challenged the United State’s national security threat designation from the Trump era in a legal challenge to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Huawei said in a petition filed late on Monday with the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals that the FCC order exceeded “statutory authority; violates federal law and the Constitution; is arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.”
In other developments, chip maker Qualcomm announced a new partnership with China Mobile and ZTE to work on 5G positioning tech that will enable many industrial applications for the next-generation mobile technology.
Antirust: Final rules and fresh ammunition
In a much anticipated move, Beijing released the final version of its updated antimonopoly guidelines. While the guidelines don’t provide specific details, there are some small, but significant changes to the draft that was first released last November.
The newly established guidelines stipulate that the regulator must define “a relevant market”, or the area where a monopoly exists, in an antitrust investigation. That is key to proving in an antitrust investigation or lawsuit that an internet platform has built up a dominant market position and misused this position. An internet platform will only be subject to regulatory or legal punishment if such a situation exists.
In the previous draft released in November, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) did not have to define a relevant market to call a monopoly in “special cases”. It provided regulators unrestrained power to label any company a monopoly.
In the private sector, the new antitrust rules are providing fresh ammunition in ongoing feuds between China’s internet giants. Bytedance, which has blocked links to Tencent’s WeChat and QQ, has sued Tencent over alleged monopolistic practices after complaining for months about unfair treatment. Tencent, for its part, has said it will countersue.
At any other moment in time, this suit could have been chalked up as typical corporate bickering. This time is different. For one thing, Bytedance is suing for a record high of US$14 million. For another, the way the suit is decided could not only encourage more civil actions by other companies but could also help provide a judicial basis for China’s data market ambitions.
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