Government of India Bans 40+ More Chinese Apps

The tussle between the two demographically giant neighbors is going on with the government of India banning  47 more Chinese apps. India has already banned 59 Chinese apps last month, and probably eying on many more.

These app bans started after a series of skirmishes took place between India and China in the Himalayan region last month. After which India banned 59 Chinese apps including Bytedance’s TikTok and Tencent’s WeChat in its strongest move yet targeting China in the online space.

Government of India Bans 40+ More Chinese Apps

Head of the New Delhi BJP’s IT and social media cell, Punit Agarwal, confirmed the news on Twitter and tweeted,

“Govt of India bans 47 more Chinese apps which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 apps that were banned in June. These banned clones include Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, SHAREit Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite and VFY Lite. Over 250 more apps under radar including PubG. #DigitalStrike.”

 

India’s technology ministry announced an order stating that the apps are “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, the security of the state and public order”.

The ban is considered to be a big stumbling block for Chinese companies like Bytedance in India, as the country is the biggest foreign market for these apps. Bytedance had plans to invest nearly $1 billion in India, open a local data center, and had recently ramped up hiring in the country.

In April, the app analytics firm Sensor Tower told that India is the biggest market of TikTok app installations, with a total of nearly 611 million lifetime downloads, or 30.3% of the total downloads.

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