The Chinese digital technology giants, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (BAT), dominate over their competitors in China across platforms that include e-commerce, digital entertainment, e-finance and artificial intelligence (AI). To understand BAT’s corporate power and their strategic role working with the government – in this case, their involvement in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – this paper unveils the capabilities of these three oligopolies and discusses their international expansion in relation to the BRI. The BRI is being constructed on two layers, the physical and digital infrastructure, and the BAT are contributing to the latter. This paper examines the interrelations between BAT and the state through case studies, observing the tensions and potential contradictions arising from the reliance of the Chinese state on the BAT to build digital infrastructure, while the BAT seek to minimize direct state regulation for their data-driven business models.
Platformization theory proposes that cultural productions are contingent on platforms. This study argues that in the Chinese context; however, online productions are contingent not only on platforms, but on government policies. Under the influence of state, market, and platform policy, major streaming services in China are becoming an online “state TV.” The limitations placed on grassroots content has forced creators to thrive elsewhere, contributing to the proliferation of short video platforms such as TikTok. This study investigates the contingency and precarity of the online sector to map the migration of content creators from conventional streaming services to the emerging creative forms of short videos and livestreaming.
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