ABSTRACT
This chapter conducts a thorough examination of the discourse of the three major China-based global Internet companies, namely Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (collectively referred to as BAT), which are dominating the Chinese Internet and technology market. This chapter scrutinizes a total of 123 documents, consisting of the speeches delivered by the CEOs of BAT at their respective companies’ largest annual gatherings and the most significant industry events in China. These speeches span a ten-year period from 2008 to 2018, which marks the timeframe when BAT solidified their dominant positions in the Chinese Internet market. By employing a combination of thematic analysis and critical discourse analysis, this chapter exposes how BAT employs discourse to construct their current state of affairs, define themselves, and justify their relationships with other stakeholders, thereby legitimizing their dominant market position, expansion into new industries, and global expansion.
