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Entry barriers for China's value-added telecommunication
services have eased since 2014, facilitating the entry of new
competitors, the ministry said in a statement.
"Under the restrictions, competitive edge of Yihaodian has been
diminishing while its sales growth has been slowing," the
ministry said.
Yihaodian's pace of development has lagged behind that of its
main competitors, the ministry added.
Wal-Mart officials were not immediately available for comment.
In August 2012, the world's largest retailer received
"restricted" approval to raise its stake in Yihaodian and became
the controlling shareholder with a 51 percent stake by buying
into its parent.
Wal-Mart said in 2012 that the deal had received conditional
approval by the ministry's Anti-Monopoly Bureau.
The restrictions stipulated that Yihaodian must use its own
e-commerce platform for sales, while its parent was not allowed
to host third-party transactions on the platform.
In July last year, the U.S. retail giant took full ownership of
Yihaodian, after buying out the remaining 49 percent stake to
accelerate its online push. The move came shortly after China
said it would allow full foreign ownership of e-commerce
businesses.
(Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
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