India bans another 118 Chinese apps, including PUBG, making it difficult for Chinese companies going overseas to survive

Even the mobile game "PUBG" is banned. There is no room for a Chinese app on the 300 million smartphones of the Indian people?

Once again, after the Indian army illegally crossed the line, the Indian government announced a large-scale ban on Chinese apps.

On September 2, the Indian Ministry of Information Technology issued a notice stating that "these applications are not conducive to the sovereignty and integrity of India, the defence of India, the security of the country and public order". The 118 Chinese apps banned this time cover social, video, games, payment and other fields, including the mobile game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), Alipay, Baidu App, WeChat for Business, Tencent Weiyun, Taobao, Sina News, etc.

A few months ago, India also announced the ban of 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok, which is very popular in India. Before the ban, TikTok had 200 million users in India and 120 million monthly active users, accounting for 30% of global users.

In July, India released a second banned list, which included 47 "clone apps" of Chinese apps. Most of these newly banned apps were clones or different versions of banned apps. At the same time, 275 Chinese apps were included in the "special monitoring list", and PUBG was on the list at that time.

Relations between China and India have been strained since the beginning of the year. "Boycott China" has also become a trend on Twitter in India, including many radical actions such as destroying Chinese-made smartphones, TVs and other products as long as they are "Made in China".

In April, India also changed its foreign investment policy, requiring Chinese investors to obtain approval from the New Delhi government before writing new checks to Indian companies. In recent years, Chinese investors have invested billions of dollars in Indian startups, and now New Delhi wants to shut Chinese companies out. As the policy tightens, last month, Alibaba Group announced a suspension of investment in India. Although it will not reduce its stake in invested companies or exit its investment for the time being, it will not invest new funds for at least six months.

In addition to apps from well-known Internet companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, and Xiaomi, many MP3 players, mobile phone cleaning software, and business card recognition software were also included in the ban list. In two months, India has banned a total of 224 Chinese apps.

The following is a complete list of the 118 Chinese apps banned in India:

Of course, among the 118 Chinese apps that have just been banned, the most popular one is PUBG Mobile Lite, the lightweight version of the "chicken-eating" mobile game "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds".

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) is a tactical competitive mobile game from Tencent. Among the users of the mobile version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, the largest number of downloads came from India, with about 175 million downloads, accounting for 24% of the total downloads. The game had more than 40 million monthly active users in India in July.

According to statistics from mobile application data analysis company Sensor Tower, in the first half of 2020, Douyin/TikTok was the world's most downloaded app and the third highest-grossing app in the world, second only to Tinder and YouTube in terms of revenue-making ability; the mobile version of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" is the most profitable app in the mobile gaming field, ranking first in the world in terms of revenue, and is also the world's most downloaded mobile game.

Now, these two "national-level apps" in India have been banned, along with two of TikTok's "scientific Internet tools."

For Chinese Internet companies, the Indian government's repeatedly updated ban list has made the already difficult road to overseas expansion even more difficult. After TikTok was removed from the Indian market, platform users and creators were scattered everywhere, and many Indian short video bloggers lost an important source of income. At the same time, according to Indian media reports, ByteDance has suspended recruitment in India. Although it still retains existing employees, considering TikTok's difficult situation in the United States, future layoffs in India are also necessary.

Even more subtle is the attitude of Indian citizens: In mid-August, Indian media reported widely that a 16-year-old Indian middle school student died in hospital due to dehydration after not eating for several days due to his addiction to the "Chicken Eating" game. For Indian parents who are trying to get their children to quit mobile games, they said they "fully agree" with the government's ban on PUBG.