China’s Tech Giants Lost Their Swagger and May Never Get It Back
Fear and paranoia now cow a once-proud $1 trillion internet industry. Even if Beijing relents, the sector is a shadow of its former self.
Zheping Huang, and
On trading floors in New York and Hong Kong, the brightening mood toward Chinese technology companies is unmistakable: With stocks like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. surging from multi-year lows, talk of a new bull market is growing louder.
Yet speak to executives, entrepreneurs and venture capital investors intimately involved in China’s tech sector and a more downbeat picture emerges. Interviews with more than a dozen industry players suggest the outlook is still far from rosy, despite signs that the Communist Party’s crackdown on big tech is softening at the edges.