China’s Tech Giants Take Stakes in More Companies as Crackdown Hits Growth

China’s tech giants Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance made more equity investments in 2021 compared to the previous year, as a sweeping regulatory crackdown hit their core businesses, industry data show.

Hong Kong-listed Tencent Holdings Ltd. and its affiliates invested in 258 companies last year, 60% more than in 2020, according to data compiled by Qichacha, a corporate information provider. The total size of the equity investments remains unclear because the values of many deals were not disclosed.