Is More Trouble Brewing For Alibaba, Its Tech Counterparts? Beijing Reportedly Considers Data Tax

What Happened: As Chinese President Xi Jinping furthers his "common prosperity" agenda that seeks equitable sharing of wealth, it has emerged that China could impose a "data tax" on platform developers, including big internet companies, the Nikkei reported.

Why It's Important: Internet tech companies such as $Alibaba(BABA.US)$ , $Tencent(TCEHY.US)$ , $Baidu(BIDU.US)$ and $JD.com(JD.US)$ mint huge money from hawking the massive amount of personal data they collect from their users.

These companies have already taken a huge hit from an extended regulatory crackdown that was set in motion late last year. The Jack Ma-co-founded Alibaba was the first to feel the pinch.

It was in fact comments made by Ma at the same conference last year regarding overregulation that opened the Pandora's box of sorts.

The domestic tech titans were taken to task for engaging in anticompetitive practices and also misuse of user data.

Antitrust regulators ordered Alibaba to pay fine of $2.87 billion in mid-April. The company's September quarter results released last week showed the impact of the regulatory crackdown, with the company reporting the first adjusted profit decline in more than five years.