Recently, India made headlines after it banned over 50 Chinese mobile applications. However, it looks like two Tencent-moderated apps dodged the mass banning.
Micky News previously reported that the Government of India decided to ban a total of 59 mobile applications moderated by Chinese developers. The decision was due to the recent clash of the countries’ armies in Ladakh region.
India invoked the power of the Ministry of Information Technology, citing the “emergent nature of threats” of these 59 apps. But why were PUBG and Call of Duty: Mobile left out?
Only partly China moderated?
Per The Indian Express, PlayerUnknown’s Battleground (PUBG) is technically owned by Bluehole’s subsidiary, PUBG Corporation, which is based in South Korea. Upon the Battle Royale title’s rise to fame on PC (at the time), Tencent reportedly sought PUBG Corporation for the distribution of the game in China.
Following its success in China, Tencent expanded the game’s availability in India.
Reasons why PUBG is not banned in India…#MarketingMind pic.twitter.com/wWQKE8Bhu6
— Marketing Mind (@MarketingMind_) June 30, 2020
Call of Duty: Mobile, on the other hand, is of course owned by Activision which is based in Santa Monica, California, U.S.A. But, to be able to port a mobile version of its famed Call of Duty franchise the gaming giant partnered with TiMi Studios, which is said to be a subsidiary of Tencent.
Tencent is a Chinese multinational conglomerate holding company. It specializes in many industry aspects, including internet-specific products and services. In fact, it recently launched a streaming platform as well called Trovo Live, which is similar to Twitch.
Basically, the two famed mobile games are moderated by Tencent and its subsidiaries in porting to the mobile platform. However, both dodged the mass China app ban.
Per the media outlet, this might have something to do with the “mixed ownership and the IP registrations.” However, this hasn’t been confirmed by the Government of India yet.
Indian developed video-sharing apps alternative to TikTok
Meanwhile, TikTok was one of the noticeable applications that got banned in India. Of course, the video-sharing app has been the subject of doubtful security of users’ data for quite some time now, ever since it became popular.
Amid the TikTok ban, Reuters report that other video-sharing apps made in Inda surged. One of which is Roposo.
Technically, Ropo has been around since 2014, but its user base reported skyrocketed by 22 million only after two days TikTok was banned.
Its founder Mayank Bhangadia told the media outlet, “In the last few days I’ve slept for a total of five hours, and its the same for our entire team. The load is so much and we’re just ensuring that the experience is as smooth as possible.”
Before the banning, the Indian app only had about 50 million Android installs. However, it now has over 80 million downloads, with an expectancy of 100 million downloads in the days to come.
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