Alibaba Group Holding stock was falling Thursday as regulatory pressures from Beijing -- long the bogeyman of the Chinese tech sector -- appeared to rise again. While Alibaba has recently made a successful pivot to artificial intelligence, it is still vulnerable to government scrutiny of its core e-commerce business.
Alibaba stock regained some ground after falling 2.8% in early trading on Thursday. The S&P 500 and many other tech stocks were also in the red.
Alibaba built its reputation as the Chinese equivalent of Amazon: It began as an online retailer, then got into cloud computing, and is now a high-flying AI player in China with hopes of building its own chips to rival those of Nvidia.
But Alibaba's core revenue base and profit driver continues to be online retail, and the company's problems aren't about AI sentiment. Chinese authorities this week summoned e-commerce companies, including Alibaba, to a meeting to demand that they institute higher quality standards and better consumer protections. Getting a stern call from China's State Administration for Market Regulation is no joke. Long-term holders of Alibaba stock know that better than anyone.
Alibaba stock traded above $300 a share going into late 2020, when Chinese regulators began a prolonged crackdown on the country's tech sector. The following years were a bloodbath, seeing Alibaba's stock plunge below $70 at points. It has been a long road to claw some of those losses back, with Alibaba stock closing just above $104 on Wednesday.
If this week's meeting initiates another protracted period of pressure on Chinese online retailers, expect more pain for Alibaba stock.
Other companies reported to have been at the regulatory meeting include JD.com and PDD Holdings, the operator of Pinduoduo. JD.com American depositary shares were down 0.3% Thursday morning and PDD's were up .7%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index -- home to many Chinese tech companies -- tumbled more than 3% in Asian trading on Thursday.
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