Alibaba Photo:VCG

A number of Alibaba's digital applications, including Eleme and Youku, now support Tencent's Wechat payment, as Chinese regulators have stepped up its scrutiny of online platforms' monopolistic practices to reinvigorate competition.

And, Taobao, Alibaba's powerful e-commerce platform, is supporting UnionPay Cloud Payment from August 1.

Alibaba confirmed that its applications now support WeChat payment.

"Removing external link barriers (among different Apps) can reduce operating costs for merchants, and bring convenience to the customers," said Zhang Yong, Alibaba's CEO, during a teleconference on August 3. He said that Alibaba will strengthen cooperation with other platforms, in order to promote the interconnectivity among their applications.

At the same time, Tencent has also opened its system to Alibaba. On September 17, WeChat Pay service issued a statement saying that users can access external links in one-to-one chat settings.

On September 9, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) held a meeting, requiring that, from September 17, all platforms in the country must unblock external links.

"It is a basic requirement for the development of the Internet to protect the normal access of legitimate internet links. Restricting the access without legitimate reasons has negatively affected user experience and disrupting the market order," Zhao Zhiguo, a spokesperson of MIIT said on September 13.

Global Times