Alibaba Group Holding Limited (Alibaba) company came under scrutiny after China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) issued guidelines for Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) to prevent and stop monopolistic behavior within the platform economy or digital platform. This contributed to a staggering 60% quarter-on-quarter rise in influencer conversations around Alibaba on Twitter during Q4 2020, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Smitarani Tripathy, Influencer Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “In December, there was a dramatic rise in influencer conversations around Alibaba on GlobalData’s Influencer Platform, when SAMR launched anti-monopoly investigation. The regulators also summoned Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba, and ordered to formulate a rectification plan for its business.”

A major spike was noticed in November, when the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) announced to investigate companies such as Alibaba, subsequent to AML guidelines issued by SAMR. Another spike on influencer conversation was seen in November, when the initial public offering (IPO) of Ant group worth US$37bn got suspended abruptly. The Ant Group’s IPO would have been one of the largest IPOs.

There were reports of a controversial speech made by the company’s co-founder Jak Ma related to China’s financial regulation as one of the key reasons which led to the suspension of the IPO.

In August, Ant Group had filed to go public in both Hong Kong Stock Exchange and on Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR Market. The dual listing was about to raise US$34.4bn and would have been one of the biggest IPOs.

Singles Day sales was another key driver of influencer conversation spike on Alibaba company Influencer platform. Alibaba’s Single Day event, which is held every year on 11 November, surpassed US$74bn in 2020, a record high compared to US$34.8bn in the previous year.

In October another spike was noticed, when Alibaba announced to invest US$3.6bn in Sun Art Retail Group Limited, which operates RT-Mart International Ltd, a hypermarket chain. This strategic investment by Alibaba is to further strengthen its e-commerce position.