Beluga Whale Founder Wei Fangdan: 59 Chinese Mobile Apps Were Banned Or Destroyed.

Wei Fangdan, founder of beluga whale. Data map

China's Internet companies are facing a major challenge.

According to the global times, quoted by local media in India, the India government said in a press release on June 29th that India, for its sake of "safety", prohibited 59 Chinese applications of App, including Tik Tok and WeChat, and believed that these activities were harmful to India's sovereignty, national defense, National security and public order.

According to the reporter's understanding, the banned list includes the Internet products of the more famous Chinese background in the India market. For example, overseas version of TikTok, fast overseas Kwai, WeChat, QQ series, Baidu series, UC series, millet community and so on.

Wei Fangdan, the founder of the white whale going to the sea for many years, told the twenty-first Century economic report that from the quantitative point of view, the 59 of the total App in India on the market are only a small part and a small proportion. But if the quantity of these products is user, it will be very large.

Wei Fangdan said, at present, only some of the products in the list can not be found in Google Play, and most products have not been affected. However, if the product is taken off by Google Play or App Store, or the product is banned, it will be a fatal blow to these products.

China's Internet companies are facing a major challenge. - Gan Jun photo

The first choice for Chinese enterprises to go to sea

2016 is the first year of India mobile Internet development. In September of that year, as telecom operator Jio launched cheap 4G network service locally, India crossed the Internet era and entered the mobile Internet era directly. In 2018, India became the first country in the world to download mobile applications and increase the number one.

The lagging Internet base and huge population make India the most potential overseas market. The white whale went to the sea in the white paper on the entry strategy of India, which was released in 2019. It said that many network technology companies have positioned India as a target market, and it is expected that in the next 5-10 years, the India Internet market will still be in a period of rapid development.

Chinese enterprises, no doubt, have become the leaders of India's gold rush army. For example, the TikTok of the banned list, according to Sensor Tower data, in April 30th of this year, the total downloading of Tik Tok in the global App Store and Google Play has exceeded 2 billion times. Among them, India is the largest download market with Tik Tok, contributing more than 600 million downloads.

Another example is millet, according to its quarterly report this year, in the India market, millet has maintained the first record in 11 consecutive quarters, and in 2020, the market share of Q1 reached 31.2%.

At present, among the top five smartphone manufacturers in India, Samsung, except for Samsung, is a Chinese manufacturer with a total market share of over 70%.

But this time, these Chinese products in the head of the India market have become banned objects. Wei Fangdan told reporters that the India government's ban is enough to be called the biggest crisis in China's Internet products in India. Before that, a App from the public that could unload China's India products in bulk has also had a great impact on Chinese enterprises.

At the beginning of June, cheetah mobile CEO Fu Sheng had disclosed on the jitter. An application named "Remove China Apps (delete Chinese application)" was launched on the India download list. The application can scan the user's cell phone, identify products from Chinese companies and provide "one button unloading" operation options.

Later, this Remove China Apps was violated by Google officials because it violated the relevant policies of Google Play. A person familiar with the India market told reporters that in the past, a App was usually punished by the India government for some reasons, but it was the first time that such a wide range of applications was applied to China.

On the afternoon of June 30th, in response to the India government's ban, Tik Tok first responded that it would continue to comply with the requirements of data privacy and security under the India legal framework, and that the platform would not share any user information with any overseas government.

Or lose both sides

In the official statement of the India government, it is clear that the above 59 applications should be prohibited in the use of devices supporting mobile and non mobile networks.

There are many netizens in China asking questions about how the India government will ban the use of App that has been downloaded. Wei Fangdan told the twenty-first Century economic report that in August 2015, the India government banned users from visiting 857 websites. The practice was that if Internet service providers were found to have banned these websites, their ISP licenses (Internet access service licences) would be revoked.

"So this time, the India government's so-called prohibition of App in the use of mobile and non mobile network equipment, specifically refers to the India to stop the above 59 App domain name resolution, when users visit the above domain name to prevent access." Wei Fangdan said.

However, for India netizens, it is not easy to leave China's App suddenly. Wei Fangdan said, "these products in the list have been working in the India market for many years. Some products are well-known Chinese Internet Co, and their user experience is quite good. Even if there are alternatives, I think there is still a certain gap in user experience. Moreover, these products have covered all aspects of India mobile Internet users, losing them, and India netizens will be very inconvenient. "

A recent case is that in mid June, new products of a Chinese mobile phone manufacturer were sold out in India edition Amazon website and sold out in a few minutes. An Indian interviewed by the local media bluntly said that Indians had to buy cell phones, and most of the phones in the market were Chinese mobile phones. He pointed out that few other brands have the high cost performance of Chinese smartphones.

Facing the changing market environment in India, Chinese companies are also actively coping with it. According to media reports, Xiaomi has been changing the facade of the next store of India line recently, covering the advertisement board with the word "millet" with the slogan "made in India".

Manu, head of India millet, said in a media interview that people's sentiment was mainly confined to social media and did not affect Millet's business in India. All the millet phones and most smart TVs in India market are produced in India. 65% of the components come from the locality. The India company of Xiaomi is entirely under the leadership of the Indians, and the data of India users are also 100% in India.

Wei Fangdan told reporters that the main risks faced by Chinese enterprises are policies, laws and regulations, intellectual property rights, data privacy, localization and so on. In fact, over the past few years, Chinese enterprises have acquired relatively mature operational experience in the fields of localization, intellectual property rights, data privacy and so on, which are the most dangerous factors of local policy risks.

According to Wei Fangdan, after the official ban was issued by India, he communicated with a company responsible for making news products on the list. The other side said their products had not been put off yet. But when it comes to the future coping strategies, the other party may not make the India market and shift its focus to other overseas markets.

Wei Fangdan told reporters that although some Chinese enterprises have been in the India market for many years, their output to output ratio is not ideal, and they have not earned any money. Now the policy changes will become a fuse to speed up their departure from the India market.

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