The world's tech giant Tencent Holdings has decided to call Singapore a new home. According to Bloomberg, the company is planning to build a regional hub and move some of its business operations out of China. The action comes after PUBG Mobile was banned by the Indian Government as well as the United States prohibited its WeChat app.
However, this is not the first time we see a Chinese organization moving to Singapore. Previously, the e-commerce giant Alibaba and Bytedance, the owner of TikTok, has set up bases in the Southeast Asian country. The sovereign island attracts businesses from around the world with its transparent policies and a booming economy as the world's new financial hub. Singapore also sits on the nautical gateway to Southeast and South Asia.
"Tencent Holdings Ltd. has picked Singapore as its beachhead for Asia, joining rivals Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and ByteDance Ltd. in the race to build up their presence closer to home after setbacks in the U.S. and India.", the Bloomberg reported.
If you don't know, Tencent Holdings is a multinational technology corporation based in Shenzen, China. It is the driving force behind China's thriving tech scene. Tencent owns some of the massive mobile apps like the social media and messaging app WeChat, and develops PUBG Mobile.
Being the third-largest corporation in the world, Tencent owns Riot Games (developer of League of Legends and Valorant) and holds the majority of stakes in Supercell and Epic Games (developer of Fortnite). It also has stakes in Activision Blizzard (COD Mobile), Bluehole (PUBG Mobile), Ubisoft, Voodoo, and several more.
How Bans in the USA and India Affects Tencent
Tencent is having a rough year with major setbacks in two of its biggest markets, the USA and India. The United States President Donald Trump issued an executive order in August, prohibiting any transaction with WeChat and Tiktok.
Earlier this month, the Government of India decided to ban PUBG Mobile, PUBG Mobile Lite, and 116 other Chinese apps. The order came after the ban of 59 mobile apps in July. Insecurity concerns were cited as the main reason. Numerous complaints accused some apps of stealing and transferring users' data in an unauthorized manner to servers outside of India. In total, 118 mobile applications received a ban under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2009.
Consequently, PUBG Mobile lost 24% of its total user base. To resolve the problem and regain its user base, PUBG Corporation (Krafton Game Union) revoked its partnership with Tencent in India. The company now directly takes over the publishing role of the popular game in the country. Sources say PUBG Corp. has already negotiated with the Indian Government.