Free exchange | A bug problem

摘要

THERE ARE both petty and respectable explanations for China's assault on Ant Group. The fintech giant was less than 48 hours away from the world's biggest initial public offering when regulators halted it in November-the first in a series of moves aimed at taming the fast-growing firm. The petty is that Jack Ma, Ant's outspoken founder, had offended Chinese leaders with a blunt speech. The respectable is that the government needed to act because Ant threatened financial stability. As a state newspaper recently put it, Ant had become "too big to fail", presenting itself as a tech firm but pumping out loans. The petty explanation, to the extent that it is right, can be dismissed as a China-specific problem, a reflection of the Communist Party's tightening grip on tycoons. But the respectable explanation deserves a hearing, not least because of its global resonance. As Apple, Facebook and Google get into payments and more, the question of how to regulate Big Tech on its forays into finance will become all the more prominent.