In brief: Alipay cracks under pressure from China

The Chinese state is tightening its grip on the FinTech Alibaba. Its financial subsidiary Ant Group is particularly targeted. To better control it, the Chinese state has decided to split its Alipay application.

The issue of data managed by Alibaba was a growing problem for the Chinese government. After putting pressure on the founder of Alibaba and short-circuiting his IPO, Beijing has finally let the axe fall on Alipay.

The financial service of the web giant will be split in two:

• with on one side; its consumer credit services Huabei and Jiebei,
• and on the other, the Alipay application, which will only support its payment service.

This change in form is accompanied by a fundamental revolution. The financial data processed by Ant Group's services will have to be shared with the Chinese authorities in the framework of a new public rating agency. For this purpose, Chinese state-owned companies will now hold a majority stake in the future version of Ant Group.

A global issue

The issue of GAFA domination goes beyond the subjectivity of Chinese political decisions. In the United States or in Europe, their regulation is just as much a problem as their authoritarian hegemony, managed with fines, laws and restrictions.