<article>Tencent Holdings, which owns China&#8217;s top social media app WeChat, has scrapped an investment of up to 30 million yuan ($4.7 million) in a content startup that has been criticised online and by state media for its handling of copyright issues.</article>

Tencent Holdings, which owns China&#8217;s top social media app WeChat, has scrapped an investment of up to 30 million yuan ($4.7 million) in a content startup that has been criticised online and by state media for its handling of copyright issues.
News of Tencent&#8217;s investment in Chaping, a WeChat-based online media company whose name means &#8220;bad review&#8221;, had spurred questions about Tencent&#8217;s commitment to protecting intellectual property that is at the core of its own content business spanning publishing, entertainment and gaming.
&#8220;We have reached consensus with the Chaping team to accept their decision to voluntarily return our investment,&#8221; Tencent&#8217;s public relations director Marsh Zhang said in a WeChat post.
Tencent also said it would &#8220;continue to respect and protect original content&#8221; with enhanced measures.
The investment in Chaping &#8211; the first by Tencent&#8217;s new content-focused TOPIC fund &#8211; is dwarfed by international mega deals done in recent months by the company.
Tencent is Asia&#8217;s second-most valuable company and one of the region&#8217;s most active investors.
Last week, in the wake of mounting criticism, Tencent had said it was conducting stricter due diligence on the Chaping deal and may &#8220;negotiate to return its stake&#8221; if it was found that it did not match Tencent&#8217;s values, reversing an earlier statement defending the investment.
On Sunday, state-run People&#8217;s Daily ran a commentary on the deal, criticising the practice of &#8220;hidden plagiarism&#8221;.
Attempts by Reuters to reach Chaping for a comment regarding allegations of plagiarism were unsuccessful.
Earlier on Monday, Chaping said in a statement that it believed it was &#8220;inappropriate to receive an investment from Tencent before a new round of copyright standardisation is completed&#8221;.
&#8220;Chaping will endeavour to grow independently and learn from the mistake, take on greater responsibility in the field of copyright and original content protection,&#8221; it added.
There are 20 million public accounts on WeChat, including 3.5 million monthly active ones such as Chaping, according to Tencent, making it China&#8217;s largest content publishing platform.
With more than 1 billion users, WeChat is China&#8217;s most popular messenger-to-payment app. Popular public accounts with high traffic on WeChat make money through advertisements, reader tipping or e-commerce.
<h4>Reuters</h4>

Tencent Holdings, which owns China’s top social media app WeChat, has scrapped an investment of up to 30 million yuan ($4.7 million) in a content startup.

Tencent pulls investment in content startup Chaping after online backlash

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief

Tencent pulls investment in content startup Chaping after online backlash

Start your deal-making journey now!

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief