Big tech anti-corruption efforts continue as an ongoing saga rather than reaching a conclusion. The latest development comes from ByteDance's announcement on September 4th: 100 employees were terminated for violating company policies, with 18 individuals publicly named for serious violations including criminal activities and malicious damage to company interests, and 8 suspected of criminal conduct were handed over to judicial authorities while losing stock options and being reported to industry alliances.
ByteDance has issued similar anti-corruption reports for multiple consecutive quarters. Data shows that in 2024, ByteDance terminated 353 employees for violations and transferred 39 individuals to judicial authorities for criminal prosecution.
This is not an isolated case. According to media reports, Tencent has published anti-fraud investigation reports annually for the past six years, handling over 390 cases involving "red line" violations and terminating 550 employees. JD.com investigated 221 corruption cases in 2024, including 191 commercial bribery cases and 30 embezzlement cases.
These incidents demonstrate that corruption has become a common problem across internet companies, not only threatening the healthy development of these tech giants but also producing negative consequences for the broader economy and society.
While the old saying goes "don't air your dirty laundry in public," multiple major internet companies have proactively exposed their internal issues, showing their determination to carry anti-corruption efforts through to the end. However, this "public announcement" approach to big tech anti-corruption still faces two problems: first, it represents "internal" anti-corruption, limited to self-investigation; second, it focuses on "results-based" anti-corruption, with insufficient transparency in the process.
More importantly, despite annual reports, the number of cases and people involved hasn't decreased, suggesting corruption may be increasing despite anti-corruption efforts. This perhaps indicates that the soil breeding corruption in big tech companies hasn't been thoroughly eliminated.
Why is corruption so prominent in big tech companies? The root cause lies in their "bigness." The "bigness" of these companies is built on walls constructed from resources. Platform companies leverage scale effects to transform public domain traffic, data, and access qualifications into priceable scarce resources. When big tech companies control the "power of life and death" over merchant onboarding, traffic allocation, and subsidy policies, under flat management structures, everyone from executives to grassroots employees effectively gains space for "rent-seeking."
How should big tech companies advance anti-corruption efforts? The key lies in "opening up." Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and through "opening up," it's possible to penetrate rent-seeking spaces and leave corrupt transactions with nowhere to hide.
Big tech "opening up" requires opening supply chains, breaking industrial closed loops, and introducing competitive mechanisms. After years of development, some big companies have formed comprehensive industrial ecosystems with complete supporting facilities and frequent internal transactions and self-circulation, becoming breeding grounds for corruption. For example, Feng, who was responsible for service provider onboarding approvals and reward policy formulation at Kuaishou, profited 140 million yuan through program loopholes and data leaks. In such situations, anti-corruption efforts need to break closed loops, introduce competitive mechanisms within controllable ranges, and push supply chains toward the market, allowing resources to flow openly. This makes it difficult for approvers to monopolize decisions, naturally compressing rent-seeking space.
Big tech "opening up" requires transparent information disclosure and improved bidding mechanisms. Procurement has always been a high-incidence area for corruption in big tech companies. Due to lack of comprehensive bidding mechanisms, various forms of "bid rigging" and "collusive bidding" continue despite prohibitions. For example, three former Ele.me executives including Han used their positions to help multiple suppliers obtain logistics delivery business qualifications, collecting over 40 million yuan in bribes. To avoid such phenomena, big tech companies need to promote transparency in key business processes—including bidding information, evaluation criteria, partner qualifications, and winning results—while accepting internal and external scrutiny. Companies must let power operate under sunlight, making every decision traceable, verifiable, and accountable.
Big tech "opening up" means constructing diversified supervision systems and breaking the "island effect" of corporate anti-corruption. Currently, major internet companies have established strong internal supervision mechanisms. For instance, Alibaba established an Integrity and Compliance Department, with Jack Ma stating: "The Integrity and Compliance Department can investigate anyone at Alibaba, including me." Tencent established an Anti-Fraud Investigation Department, ByteDance set up an Enterprise Discipline and Professional Ethics Committee, Meituan has "Major Case Unit Six," Baidu has a Professional Ethics Committee, and JD.com has an Internal Control and Compliance Department.
Although these institutions hold high positions and significant authority within their companies, "it's hard to cut one's own handle with one's own knife." These top-down, inside-out supervision mechanisms may not necessarily achieve absolute compliance or immediate effectiveness. For example, Wang, a basic-level operations staff member at an Alibaba e-commerce platform responsible for furniture flagship store onboarding preliminary reviews, profited 92 million yuan through irregular approvals, representing "massive corruption by a minor official." This exemplifies the failure of single internal supervision in big tech companies.
Therefore, big tech anti-corruption efforts need to construct diversified supervision systems, such as introducing professional third-party audits, connecting with early judicial intervention, and establishing smooth channels for employee and public reporting, thereby breaking the "island effect" of corporate anti-corruption and leaving corrupt individuals with nowhere to hide.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. When supply chains become more market-oriented, bidding processes more transparent, and supervision subjects more diversified, rent-seeking space naturally shrinks, and big tech anti-corruption efforts can achieve greater effectiveness.