What does BAT’s hiring freeze really mean to the entire internet industry?

China’s three internet giants, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent – often referred to collectively at BAT – are apparently thinking of the same thing: fasten your seat belt, tighten your budget and stop hiring.

Is this a good thing or bad thing for the long-term development of internet business in the world’s No2 economy?

The growing power of BAT has rapidly become a challenge to many other, smaller internet businesses in China and one of the challenges it poses related to hiring. Due to the higher pay and other compensation offered by the triumvirate, even to recently graduated junior engineers, many competitors have complained about difficulties to recruiting sufficient talent in recent years.

And due to BAT’s powerful roles in many different internet-related sectors, ranging from search to car-hailing services, some people view it as an obstacle to future development and innovation by smaller players that may have the potential to be disruptive some day, like Uber or its Chinese clone Didi Kuaidi, which have changed the way people travel.