China To Target Biggest Payment App Alipay In Tech Crackdown: Report

Alipay -- with more than one billion users in China and other Asian nations including India -- was told to spinoff its profitable micro loan business, a report said.

Chinese regulators have ordered sweeping changes to the country's biggest payment app Alipay, as the ruling Communist Party attempts to rein in "the unruly growth" of the tech giants. Alipay -- with more than one billion users in China and other Asian nations including India -- was told to spinoff its profitable micro loan business, the Financial Times reported Monday, citing a person with knowledge of the matter. Currently the app allows users to pay with a traditional credit card linked to their bank or offers small unsecured loans to buy anything from toilet paper to laptops. "The government believes big tech's monopoly power comes from their control of data," the source close to financial regulators told the newspaper. "It wants to end that."