Asian Tech Press (Oct 21) -- China has removed Caixin Media, which had been backed by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma's Ant Group, from an official list of news outlets that can be republished.

China's cybersecurity regulator State Internet Information Office (SIIO) released on Wednesday the latest version of its list of government-approved news outlets, covering 1,358 state-owned agencies and including WeChat public accounts and applications in the list for the first time, a vastly expanded pool that is nearly four times higher than that of the previous version.

This latest version of the news and information source list, a total of 1,358 source units, its greatly expanded total is nearly four times higher than the previous, showing that its coverage has become broader and more diverse content.

However, the privately owned Caixin, which used to be highly visible, has fallen off the list in a rare way.

It is predictable that since Caixin has been removed from the list, netizens will not be allowed to cite its content as a source when writing articles. And even if the media outlet is not shut down, it will be reduced to a repeater of other financial media outlets.

According to news on Oct. 12, Ant Group has now sold all of its shares in Caixin. In 2016, Caixin secured tens of millions of yuan in Series D round of financing from Alibaba's fintech arm.

Founded in 2009, Caixin has raised four rounds of financing from investors including Ant Group, Tencent, China Media Capital (CMC) and Zhejiang Daily Digital Culture Group Co., Ltd.