A way out: Banned Chinese apps weigh selling out to Indian partners

New Delhi | Bengaluru: Many Chinese gaming apps that were banned recently are considering selling out to Indian partners, according to lawyers and officials aware of the development. The idea is to ensure that the Indian arm will run the show after re-launching the product while the parent entity earns revenue through licence fee, they told ET. On Tuesday, South Korean gaming giant PUBG Corporation said that it had decided to no longer authorise its PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ mobile franchise to Tencent Games in India, a week after the government banned the multiplayer battle game along 117 other Chinese apps, including many gaming and dating apps. These banned apps have little option but to sell to an Indian partner who can operate it in the country while repatriating some royalty back to the parent company, said a lawyer who represents nearly 20 of the banned apps. “After the ban in India, many of these gaming apps have lost a huge region with whom players in the other region used to play with, so these companies will now have to create a new region with a strong user base to remain at the same level of popularity globally,” the lawyer, who did not wish to be identified, said. Many other Chinese apps could shut their India operations since revenue streams and funding had dried up, while some others are considering the legal route if they do not get clarity from the government soon. “Government has put fundraising by Chinese companies also under an approval process, which means that they don't have money to pay salaries and continue India offices,” he said, adding that anywhere between 5,000 and 15,000 people could lose their jobs. The first ban was announced on June 29 and the Chinese companies were sent a detailed questionnaire to which they were supposed to respond by the end of July. There has, however, been no communication from the government-constituted panel so far on the way forward. Responding to concerns over companies shutting their India operations and employees losing jobs, a senior government official said that the committee was waiting for all companies to respond and that many responses have yet to come in. “Some companies have reached out to us, quite a few of them have responded while others have responded only partially,” he said, adding that companies may have their own “perception” of the Indian market but the fact is that domestic laws apply to everyone. In three rounds, the government has banned close to 224 apps citing threats to the country’s sovereignty and integrity over misuse of citizen data.78029789 “There isn’t a way forward. What the government did is completely against law. I don’t see any relief. If they go to court, the court won’t look at this independently,” another technology policy lawyer who has worked with Chinese internet firms said. With tensions escalating at the Line of Actual Control and lack of clarity over the government's future course of action, many companies are weighing legal options, said the first lawyer quoted earlier in the story. The firms are trying to directly reach out to the government to see if they can get some clarity on the steps that they can take to safeguard data, which can get them unblocked in India, he added. For most Chinese apps, India is the largest or one of the largest user markets.

from Economic Times https://bit.ly/2Rcl7A8
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