Chinese taxi-hailing apps Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache announced merger in mid-February after a year of break-neck competition for market shares.

The two firms will retain their own brand and business after the merger. Both Didi and Kuaidi's current CEOs will co-chair the newly-founded company that analysts say could be valued at $6 billion.

Kuaidi held a 56.5-percent share of China's taxi-hailing app market, while Didi accounted for 43.3 percent as of December 2014, according to research consultancy Analysys International.

Didi and Kuaidi have received backing from Chinese internet giant Tencent and Alibaba, respectively.

The merger of Didi and Kuaidi is not a monopoly, according to sources with Kuaidi.

China's anti-monopoly law states that the companies which want to merge should report to the Ministry of Commerce if their combined turnover in the last fiscal year exceeded 2 billion yuan (about $320 million) and at least two of them reported turnover of more than 400 million yuan ($64 million).

Since the two companies' combined revenue is far lower than the standard, they are not obliged to report to the anti-monopoly regulator, said Tao Ran, a senior vice president with Kuaidi.

Lesser Restrictions

The Chinese Government has allowed local resource-starved refineries to import crude oil.

Qualified local refineries will only be allowed to import crude oil if they cut backward capacity or install natural gas storage facilities, according to an announcement from the National Reform and Development Commission.

The new rule applies to local refineries already in production that have facilities with refining capacity of over 2 million tons and meet ecological, quality and energy-saving requirements.

China only allowed government-approved refineries to use imported crude oil in the past.

The announcement also said that no new refineries or capacity expansion are allowed without government permission and called for equal treatment of state-owned and private refineries.

Bank Expansion

China's banking regulator has approved two state-owned banks to open branches in less developed southern areas of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to stimulate local development.

China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China have received approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) to set up secondary branches in Kashgar.

Establishing bank branches in south Xinjiang will benefit infrastructure construction in the area and promote economic development and social stability, said the CBRC.

In mid-February, the People's Bank of China and regulators of banking, securities and insurance sectors jointly released a guideline to increase policy support to south Xinjiang.

Online Games Boom

China had 248 million mobile online game players at the end of 2014, surging 32.9 million from the previous year, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) has said.

A CNNIC report showed that amid the development of 4G mobile networks and upgrade of smartphone hardware, China's online game players are turning from computers to mobile phones, a new powerhouse to drive the vibrant sector, according to the report.

The number of people accessing the Internet from mobile devices totaled 557 million at the end of last year, up 56.7 million year on year and accounting for 85.8 percent of China's total online population.