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Chinese Govt Summons Gaming Firms, Says Will Crack Down on Ride-Hailing

A Rogue Warriors esports team member trains for the game “Arena of Valor” at his club in Shanghai, China September 3, 2021. Picture taken September 3, 2021. (Reuters)
A Rogue Warriors esports team member trains for the game “Arena of Valor” at his club in Shanghai, China September 3, 2021. Picture taken September 3, 2021. (Reuters)
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Chinese Govt Summons Gaming Firms, Says Will Crack Down on Ride-Hailing

A Rogue Warriors esports team member trains for the game “Arena of Valor” at his club in Shanghai, China September 3, 2021. Picture taken September 3, 2021. (Reuters)
A Rogue Warriors esports team member trains for the game “Arena of Valor” at his club in Shanghai, China September 3, 2021. Picture taken September 3, 2021. (Reuters)

China’s government on Wednesday summoned gaming firms including Tencent Holdings Ltd and NetEase Inc to ensure they implement new rules for the sector.

It also said it would crack down on illegal behavior in the ride-hailing industry.

Beijing last month moved to ban under-18s from playing video games for more than three hours a week in a tighter set of regulations for gaming as it looks to strengthen control over sectors of its economy such as tech, education and property.

Gaming firms were told by the government on Wednesday to implement measures such as curbing minors’ hours of access to their video games to protect their physical and mental health, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Those that are found to have “inadequately” implemented the regulations will be severely punished, it said, adding that the firms present were also asked to resist engaging in improper competition and should instead focus on driving innovation.

Xinhua named the authorities involved as the ruling Communist Party’s Publicity Department, the National Press and Publication Administration, the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Separately on Wednesday, the Transport Ministry said it would intensify a crackdown on illegal behavior in the ride-hailing industry and deal with online platforms that are still using noncompliant vehicles and drivers.

The statement comes after Chinese government regulators launched a cybersecurity probe into ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc in July.

Meanwhile, the Cyberspace Administration of China said it has shut down and banned 1,793 so-called self-media accounts on online platforms since Aug. 27, when it announced a probe into the illegal release of financial information and badmouthing of financial markets.

The term “self-media” is mostly used describe independently operated accounts that produce original content but are not officially registered with the authorities.

The accounts closed include three with more than a million followers, while more than 47,000 pieces of “harmful information” have been cleaned up, the administration added.

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Samsung CEO Says Company Will Pursue Deals as It Struggles for Growth 

Han Jong-hee, co-chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics Co., speaks at the company's annual general meeting at the Suwon Convention Center in Suwon, South Korea, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)
Han Jong-hee, co-chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics Co., speaks at the company's annual general meeting at the Suwon Convention Center in Suwon, South Korea, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Samsung CEO Says Company Will Pursue Deals as It Struggles for Growth 

Han Jong-hee, co-chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics Co., speaks at the company's annual general meeting at the Suwon Convention Center in Suwon, South Korea, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)
Han Jong-hee, co-chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics Co., speaks at the company's annual general meeting at the Suwon Convention Center in Suwon, South Korea, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)

Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday it is looking at major deals to drive growth as it faced tough questions from shareholders after its failure to ride an artificial intelligence boom made it one of the worst-performing tech stocks last year.

The South Korean firm has been suffering from weak earnings and sagging share prices in recent quarters after falling behind rivals in advanced memory chips and contract chip manufacturing, which have enjoyed strong demand from AI projects.

Shareholders slammed management for poor stock performance and called for measures to revive stock prices at the meeting.

Samsung's co-CEO and head of its semiconductor business pledged to catch up with the high bandwidth memory (HBM) chip race and apologized for the company's poor stock performance.

"We were late in reading the market trends and we missed out on the early market as a result," Jun Young-hyun, Samsung co-CEO and head of its semiconductor business, said at the meeting.

Samsung, which has introduced a stock-based performance system to executives last year, is considering expanding the scheme to employees next year, as part of efforts to review its stock prices, co-CEO Han Jong-hee said.

Samsung shares were trading up 2.3%, compared with the benchmark KOSPI's 0.9% rise as of 12:27 p.m. (0327 GMT).

"The stock performance has been disappointing," a 65-year-old shareholder who only gave his family name, Lee, told Reuters ahead of the meeting.

"Last year, the stock price was so bad that I even considered investing in US stocks instead," he said.

Shares in Samsung tumbled by nearly a third last year and hit a four-year low in November, while those of rival SK Hynix climbed 26%.

Samsung launched a share buyback plan worth 10 trillion won ($7.2 billion) in November.

MAJOR DEALS

Han told investors that 2025 would be a difficult year because of uncertainties surrounding economic policies in major economies and that Samsung would pursue "meaningful" mergers and acquisitions to address investor concerns about growth.

"There are some difficulties in doing semiconductor M&As due to regulatory issues and various national interests, but we're determined to produce some tangible results this year," he said.

In internal meetings, Samsung has acknowledged it has lost ground. This is particularly true in semiconductors, where it lags SK Hynix in HBM chips that Nvidia and others rely on for AI graphic processing units.

"Our technological edge has been compromised across all our businesses," said a transcript of a message from Chairman Jay Y. Lee given to an internal executive seminar that was seen by Reuters. "It's hard to see that efforts are being made to drive big innovation or tackle new challenges. There are only efforts to maintain a status quo rather than shaking things up."

In recent years, Samsung has also lost market share to TSMC in contract chip manufacturing and to Apple and Chinese rivals in smartphones.

Jun pledged to shareholders that 2025 would be "the year when we recover our fundamental competitiveness".

Still, Samsung faces bigger headwinds than rivals from further US restrictions on high-end chip exports to China, as the country has become Samsung's most important market thanks to chip stockpiling by Chinese firms.

Han said Samsung will flexibly respond to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs with its global supply chain and manufacturing footprints, while looking at options for US investments.

The Trump administration is also reviewing chip projects that received billions in subsidies under a 2022 law meant to boost domestic semiconductor output. Major award recipients include Samsung, Intel, TSMC, Micron and SK Hynix.

Samsung is South Korea's most valuable company, with its market capitalization of $235 billion accounting for 16% of the total value of the country's main bourse. Nearly 40% of investors in South Korean stocks own Samsung shares, according to market data.