Platform economy prioritized

China has been exploring steps to bolster sound development of the platform economy, as it plays a critical role in expanding domestic demand and stabilizing employment, as well as empowering the real economy and fostering new quality productive forces, the State Council, the country's Cabinet, said on Friday.

Greater coherence between policies targeting the platform economy and broader macroeconomic policy objectives will be ensured, according to the State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang.

The platform economy encompasses economic activities facilitated by digital platforms such as Tencent and Alibaba, as well as Amazon and Uber.

As of the end of last year, China has seen the number of internet platform companies with a market value exceeding $1 billion reach 141, according to a report by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in July.

The country has pledged to strengthen its policy support to bolster the development of consumer-facing platforms, including measures to enhance data element supply as well as facilitate lawful and orderly cross-border data flows, the meeting said.

In a recent development, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Data Administration took pilot steps in October to open up credit data to eligible mobile payment platforms.

This will help these platforms verify the information of individually owned businesses so that the process for firms to open payment codes supporting foreign credit cards can be streamlined.

The meeting also outlined initiatives to regulate the competitive landscape of the platform economy, establish normalized supervisory mechanisms, encourage platform enterprises to operate in a standardized manner, engage in orderly competition and improve overall service quality.

As one of China's largest internet firms, Alibaba has completed a three-year regulatory rectification process following an antitrust fine it received on charges of monopolistic practices in 2021, the SAMR said in August.

In 2021, the country's market regulator fined Alibaba 18.23 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) as part of an antimonopoly investigation into the tech giant. The regulator's focus was on a practice that forces merchants to choose one of two e-commerce platforms, rather than being able to work with both.

The administration said it will strike a balance between strengthening regulatory oversight and fostering the development of the platform economy, guiding platform enterprises in improving their compliance capabilities, as well as continuously optimizing the market environment for fair competition.

Meanwhile, the protection of consumers' and workers' legitimate rights and interests within the platform economy was highlighted during the meeting.

This includes the establishment of robust online consumer complaint and review systems, as well as guidelines for platform enterprises to standardize their employment practices in compliance with existing laws, the meeting said.