<div id="readability-page-1">China’s top market regulator has summoned the country’s leading tech companies to demand an end to “involutionary” competition, at the time when the companies are pouring billions of yuan into a Lunar New Year promotional blitz to win over users for services including artificial intelligence apps. The companies summoned on Friday were Alibaba Group Holding, ByteDance’s Douyin, Baidu, Tencent Holdings, JD.com, Meituan and Taobao Instant Commerce, Alibaba’s on-demand delivery unit, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said on Saturday. The SAMR “reminded” the platforms to “further regulate promotional activities” and stay clear of “all forms of involutionary competition”, it said, without naming any exact activities conducted by the companies. The companies should “jointly uphold a fair and competitive market environment to foster innovation and healthy development within the platform economy”, the regulator added. The word “involution”, or neijuan, refers to cutthroat, low-quality price competition in sectors ranging from electric vehicles to food delivery. It has become a common term in China over the past few years, with Beijing vowing to combat the phenomenon because of its damaging economic effects. China’s tech giants have been locked in an intensifying giveaway battle before the Lunar New Year, one of the year’s most critical shopping periods, to attract users for their services, especially AI apps. Alibaba launched its Lunar New Year campaign on February 6, promising to distribute 3 billion yuan (US$431 million) in incentives through its AI app Qwen. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Tencent and Baidu are also competing to attract users to their Yuanbao and Baidu apps, respectively, in a so-called red-packet war, giving away digital versions of the envelopes of money exchanged during the holiday. TikTok parent ByteDance’s Doubao chatbot joined the fray to offer robots and drones. The companies have not officially commented on the SAMR session. The latest move came just days after the government summoned major delivery and ride-hailing service operators – including Meituan, Alibaba, Didi Chuxing and SF Express – for another offline session. It called on them to ensure the welfare of the tens of millions of gig workers who keep the country running during the Lunar New Year rush.</div>

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<p>China's market regulator has summoned major tech firms, including Alibaba and Tencent, to curb 'involutionary' competition amid a promotional blitz for Lunar New Year. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) urged companies to regulate promotional activities and avoid cutthroat competition, which has detrimental economic effects. As part of the campaign, Alibaba announced a 3 billion yuan incentive through its AI app, while competitors like Tencent and Baidu are also engaging in a giveaway battle to attract users during this critical shopping period.</p>

Beijing warns tech giants to curb ‘involution’ amid AI giveaway war