NEW DELHI: Barely a month after banning 59 Chinese applications, India has banned another set of 47 apps, most of which are clones of the apps banned in June.
While the government did not immediately release the names of the 47 apps, sources said the present list include Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, SHAREit Lite and BIGO LIVE Lite.
According to sources, India is closely monitoring another 250 Chinese apps over user privacy and national security violations. The popular Tencent-backed gaming app PUBG and apps linked to one of China’s biggest firm Alibaba fall in this list. If PUBG is banned, it will be a big blow for Chinese tech firms as the gaming app is one of the most downloaded apps in India.
The government has been trying to reduce the country’s dependence on China ever since the deadly face-off between the Indian and Chinese armies on the Line of Actual Control last month.
The ban on popular apps has impacted Chinese firms to such an extent that many have approached the central government seeking to comply with the local data storage norms.
Homegrown app makers have welcomed the fresh ban on Chinese apps. Chingari App CEO & Co-founder- Sumit Ghosh said Indian citizens need to be concerned about data and make sure it remains within India. “We at Chingari have decided to never take any funds from China nor use any of their technology in our app,” he said.
Diksha Deo, founder & CEO of INCUBSENCE, termed the ban “a much-needed oxygen for Indian startups as Chinese companies were spending huge amounts of money on ad campaigns to acquire a big portion of the market”.
250+ apps on radar
India is closely monitoring over 250 Chinese apps to verify complaints of user privacy and national security violations. These include apps linked to Alibaba