[mahranch]

> Chinese govt. could have given preferential treatment

How do we know they didn't? They could have just decided "Now that Taobao is up and running, we can get rid of ebay". They've done worse before, so it's not a stretch.

It's interesting that there are no massive web properties in China with the bulk market share (google, facebook, ebay, amazon, twitter, etc) that aren't Chinese owned. Yet, in the entire rest of the world, those same websites are #1. That's not just some coincidence or one-off, that's clearly governmental manipulation and control.

If it was just one or two web properties, I could understand. Like how it is with Yahoo! Japan. But all of them? Sorry, China doesn't want western companies running the show within their country. Articles like this are moot since there was no future with eBay in the #1 spot thanks to the CCP.

[forkLding]

Those tech companies are the result of censorship and definitely Chinese preferential treatment and national security, etc. Chinese preferential treatment by a Chinese govt is normal like the US prefers US companies such as US bailing out Ford and GM because of jobs. China would much prefer chinese companies and workers instead of international because it provides jobs and income.

US companies also dominate in China, see McDonalds or Starbucks or Apple in China. A lot of international companies dominate China, just not all of technology, also Apple is a tech company last time I checked. Even if it was a democratic Chinese govt, whats stopping it from supporting a Chinese company over a US one, whos to say that the democratic govt wont go China for the Chinese like Trump?