A year to forget for Chinese tech aces. Catastrophic end of the year on the stock market for the Chinese technological champions still muzzled by the authorities in Beijing.
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| A year to forget for Chinese tech aces |
Alibaba's stock price is hard to see at the end of 2021. If its American and European technological rivals are flying from record to record, the Chinese Amazon bites the dust on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, currently trading at its lowest level since entering the markets in November 2019.
Worse, it has fallen 52.75% in the past twelve months as its domestic index, the Hang Seng, lost just over 15%.
Alibaba and regulators
Asia's number one e-commerce stock was trading at over HK $ 300 at its peak in late October 2020. It is now worth less than $ 110.
Often unpredictable, the Chinese authorities have continued in 2021 to monitor, reprimand, prohibit or, quite simply, suppress the activities of big names in national tech.
This Thursday, Alibaba faltered again as rumors point to talks between billionaire Jack Ma's group and a public conglomerate for the sale of Alibaba's entire stake in Weibo, the Chinese favorite social network.
READ ALSO: Is China stifling its champions?
Didi's bad race
And when the national champions exhibit themselves abroad, the Chinese authorities are never far away. Didi, considered the Chinese Uber, learned this the hard way. This summer, Didi took his first steps on Wall Street, boasting the space of his first four sessions in the spotlight of the New York Stock Exchange.
But since its fifth day of trading, the title has hardly ever stopped deflating. The company has drawn the wrath of Chinese regulators with its US IPO. China, fearing an overseas leak of its citizens' personal data, launched a series of investigations that led to Didi's forcible removal from Wall Street.
The latter reported on Thursday a loss of 4.7 billion dollars, revealing the growing cost of regulatory bullying which will force the Chinese carpooling leader to transfer its listing to Hong Kong next year.
Despite this, the technological environment is teeming with promising young shoots in the Middle Kingdom. The year 2021 ended with a sensational arrival on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, that of SenseTime, the Chinese leader in artificial intelligence.
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