China's market regulator said Friday it had fined major Japanese wireless carrier SoftBank Corp. and 11 other companies 500,000 yuan ($76,500) for violating anti-monopoly laws.

SoftBank failed to report to the authorities in advance when it set up a joint venture with a group firm of Didi Chuxing, China's major ride-hailing service, the regulator said.

The 12 companies include China's leading internet search provider Baidu Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., which operates the messaging and payment app WeChat that is believed to have more than a billion users around the globe.

The latest move came as Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to strengthen measures to curb the monopolistic behavior and disorderly capital expansion of IT giants in the country.

==Kyodo

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