China’s Tencent faces concessions to win green light for giant videogaming merger: Reuters

Chinese internet giant Tencent is having to offer concessions in a plan to merge the country’s top two videogame live-streaming sites in order to resolve antitrust concerns, reported Reuters.

Tencent, China’s No. 1 videogame and social media firm, first announced plans to merge Huya and DouYu last year in a tieup designed to streamline its stakes in the firms, estimated by data firm MobTech to have an 80% slice of a market already worth more than $3 billion and growing fast.

But with regulators concerned the deal would give Tencent overwhelming dominance, it’s willing to settle for approval subject to conditions, according to two Reuters sources.

“Tencent has a dominant position in game publishing in China, while the two live-streaming sites combined would be tantamount to gargantuan in the business,” one of sources told Reuters.