- India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has banned 54 apps it says are of Chinese origin, including Sea Ltd (NYSE:SE) marquee game Free Fire, Bloomberg reports.
- The apps banned include those belonging to Tencent Holdings Ltd (OTC:TCEHY), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), and NetEase Inc (NASDAQ:NTES), and are re-branded versions of apps already banned by India in 2020.
- Sea, founded in Singapore by Chinese-born founders who became Singaporean citizens, has focused on building a gaming and e-commerce business globally with backing from its largest shareholder Tencent.
- Free Fire, the battle royale shooter often compared with PUBG, with over a billion downloads on Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google Play, was the highest-grossing mobile game in India in Q3 as per industry tracker App Annie.
- The ban follows a long-running dispute between the two nuclear-armed nations after boiling over in a 2020 skirmish that left soldiers from both sides dead and drew stricter laws in India for investments from China, including the original app ban.
- Price Action: BABA shares traded lower by 1.37% at $120.58 in the premarket on the last check Monday.
