China to make internet giants take permission before raising funds, investing
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
Chinese cyberspace regulator has drafted new rules that would require large internet companies to obtain its permission before making investments or undertaking fundraising activities.The proposed requirements from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) will apply to any platform company with more than 100 million users, or with more than 10 billion yuan ($1.58 billion) in revenue, they said.Some internet companies have already been briefed, they added, and the draft rules are still subject to changes. The proposed rules would intensify the oversight from China's increasingly assertive regulators, who have over the past year reined in formerly freewheeling internet giants in areas from dealmaking to their handling of user data. It was not immediately clear what types of investments or fundraisings could be impacted. One senior technology industry executive said there were concerns whether it would be applied to private market investments, such as pre-IPO private funding rounds.