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India has issued to ban over 54 Chinese mobile apps, including Singapore-based Sea Limited's "Free Fire" mobile game.
The latest move comes after a long-running political tension between India and China that started during 2020.
Initially during June 2020, only 59 Chinese apps were banned but it has expanded to well over 300 Chinese apps which include TikTok, WeChat, Shareit, UC News, Bigo Live, and Mi Community.
It is added that the data collection would be mined, collated, analysed and profiled, potentially by "elements hostile to the sovereignty and integrity of India" which might be detrimental to national security.
A senior official from India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said that many of the apps are rebranded version of apps that were banned in 2020.
Besides that, the apps have their ownership "hidden" by changing hands and are also hosted out of countries like Hong Kong or Singapore but the data was transferred to China's servers.
"Free Fire", which has already been taken down from India's Google Play Store and Apple's App Store, appears to be the most popular app in the latest ban wave.
This will implicate Sea Limited's e-commerce app Shopee as well, as it already faces boycott calls by traders in India over concerns that it is affecting offline traders.
According to research analyst, Oshadhi Kumarasiri, this could be a double whammy to Sea Limited, as the ban on "Free Fire" will lower digital entertainment profitability to bankroll Shopee's expansion.
He added that even though Shopee is not in the ban list currently, the possibility of a similar ban cannot be ruled out.
As of now, Tencent has yet to comment on this matter.
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