China's Big Tech companies, including Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding, have become major buyers of mainland land as both the technology and real estate sectors grapple with economic and policy headwinds.
Social media and video game giant Tencent will pay 6.42 billion yuan (900 million 5 million US dollars). .
The acquired land is intended to “meet the company's demand for office space that can provide stable, focused work space,” a company representative told the Post last week.
The Shenzhen-based technology giant will employ more than 12,000 people in Beijing by the end of 2023.
Tencent's land grab comes as the country's technology sector continues to recover from years of regulatory turmoil that has caused many companies to downsize and cut jobs. The stock market decline has wiped billions of dollars off the market capitalization of China's biggest tech companies, but authorities see the sector as playing a key role in China's future digital growth.
China economy: Manufacturing and consumption will drive growth in 2024, says Fidelity
China economy: Manufacturing and consumption will drive growth in 2024, says Fidelity
Earlier this month, Alibaba completed construction of a new Beijing campus with a floor area of 470,000 square meters in the business-centric Chaoyang District, Beijing Daily reported. Alibaba owns the post.
Last October, video game giant miHoYo and Alibaba's fintech arm Ant Group splurged on land in Shanghai and Hangzhou, where their headquarters are located, respectively.
miHoYo, the developer behind the global hit Genshinhas purchased more than 1 billion yuan of land through its subsidiary in Shanghai's Caohejing district, which is home to many Shanghai-based video game companies.
In the same month, Ant Group invested 1.5 billion yuan for the site of the West Valley Fintech Cluster in Xihu District, Hangzhou City, eastern Zhejiang Province.
Separately, Jingdong Commercial City last year spent more than 3 billion yuan on land acquisitions in Beijing's Yizhuang district, where major e-commerce companies are based.
The consultancy expects vacancy rates for grade A office space to increase by up to 21% by the end of 2023, compared to 18.7% as of June 2023.
