India has reportedly banned 232 apps connected to China as relations between the neighbors worsen.
The order by India’s tech ministry blocks 138 betting and gaming apps and 94 credit services, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday (Feb. 7), citing unnamed sources.
Most of the apps were tied to China, the report said, while others were Indian in origin but suspected of transmitting data to China.
The ban was good news for Indian mobile eCommerce website Paytm, as several local media outlets in India said its competitors were included in the ban. Shares of its parent company, One 97 Communications, jumped as high as 20% in early trading.
India banned more than 160 Chinese apps in 2020 following a border dispute with China that killed 20 Indian soldiers.
The government said at the time that the ban was the result of “information available [that] they are engaged in activities which [are] prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of state and public order.”
And these actions go beyond just app providers. In 2021, India’s Income Tax Department conducted a sweeping crackdown on Chinese mobile companies, carrying out searches at their Indian headquarters.
Paytm itself was audited last year by India’s central bank in part because of allegations that it engaged in data sharing with organizations based in China, and that it failed to offer proper know your customer (KYC) documentation. Paytm has denied these claims.
Last month, the company suffered a blow when China’s Alibaba Group sold its 3.1% stake in Paytm for $125 million.
Research by PYMNTS found that Paytm is the most popular payment method in India, with 22% of consumers using it when buying products online and 12% of shoppers using it to make in-store purchases.
That’s according to the “2023 Global Digital Shopping Index (GDSI),” a collaboration between PYMNTS and Cybersource.
The same research also found that India was the most mobile-centric market, with shoppers there the most likely to use their smartphones to help them with both in-store and online shopping experiences.
PYMNTS found that merchants in India were 20% more likely to guarantee refunds for fraudulent charges and 17% more likely to offer inventory updates.
“This suggests that boosting consumer awareness could help merchants in India raise their customer satisfaction going forward,” the GDSI found.