India Bans 54 Chinese Apps Including That From Sea, Alibaba, NetEase, Tencent

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has banned 54 apps it says are of Chinese origin, including Sea Ltd SE marquee game Free Fire, Bloomberg reports.
The apps banned include those belonging to Tencent Holdings Ltd TCEHY, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA, and NetEase Inc 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 GOOG 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.