In depth: What will Chinese apps do after India ban? – Nikkei Asian Review
An hour after the Indian government announced a ban on 59 Chinese apps late last month, Chinese residents in this South Asian country rushed to leave alternative contact information for friends on WeChat. “You can find me through Alipay if India really cuts off WeChat,” read one posting on the Chinese social media platform that was among the banned applications. Days later, the Google Play Store and Apple Store removed all 59 of the apps in India, including short video platform TikTok with 200 million users in India, Tencent’s WeChat, Sina’s Weibo, Baidu Map and Alibaba’s UC Browser. The action is not only forcing local users to scramble to switch to alternatives but is also forcing Chinese tech companies to rethink their strategy in the nation of 1.35 billion people, the world’s second-largest population after China’s 1.39 billion. India and Indonesia, reflecting a demographic dividend of youthful populations, have become the most important markets for Chinese tech compani...