Tencent Holdings founder Pony Ma met with officials from China’s antitrust watchdog this month, Reuters reported, in a fresh indication that Beijing is putting its tech behemoths under increasing scrutiny.

Shares of the company dropped by 1.7% after the Reuters report. It was followed by Tencent’s publishing of its December quarterly results on Wednesday, which showed a 26% revenue rise in the last three months of 2020 compared with 2019.

Officials had vowed to strengthen oversight of China’s large tech companies, the report said, citing concerns that their influence in the market stifled competition, misused consumer data and violated consumer rights.

Following greater scrutiny of Jack Ma’s Alibaba business holdings, which started late last year, three sources quoted by Reuters said that Tencent was expected to be next in line for sharper antitrust regulatory inquiries.

Pony Ma was in Beijing this month during the annual “Two Sessions” and visited the State Administration of Market Regulation office, the sources added. Tencent had reportedly requested the meeting with deputy head Gan Lin and other senior officials at the regulator body.

SAMR was currently investigating whether Tencent’s WeChat operated as a monopoly to the detriment of fair competition with smaller rivals, two of the sources said.

Wu Zhenguo, the head of SAMR’s anti-monopoly bureau, reportedly expressed concern at the meeting about some of Tencent’s business practices and asked the company to comply with antitrust rules.

The meeting with regulators was voluntary and was aimed at creating a healthier business environment in China, Tencent president Martin Lau said. He added that the company was previously fined 600,000 yuan (US$77,300) for monopolistic practices, and it was now actively cooperating with regulators.

Tencent recorded 133.6 billion yuan in revenues for the three months ending Dec. 31, an increase of 26% year on year from 2019. The company’s profit for the entire year of 2020 was 160.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 67%.

The number of monthly active users on its ubiquitous WeChat platform rose by 5.2% to reach 1.225 billion at the end of 2020.

The earnings report said that “the strategic focus for our fintech business is to work closely with regulators and collaborate with industry partners to deliver compliant and inclusive fintech products while prioritizing risk management over scale.”

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