As a response to China's aggression in the border region which leads to the death of one Indian soldier, the Government of India has decided to retaliate by banning 118 applications from China from operating in the country - including the national phenomenon PUBG Mobile.
This is the second ban wave aimed at Chinese apps - the first one happened a while ago, with the popular video streaming app Tik Tok getting banned. In this article, we would list out everything you need to know about the effect of the ban on Tencent and what's going to happen to PUBG Mobile next.
1 - Tencent's loss in the Indian market
India is the biggest market for PUBG Mobile with over 175 million downloads. For just the first half of 2020, the battle royale has generated over 1.3 billion dollars or Rs 9731 Crore, more than a third of its lifetime earning of 3 billion dollars, with Indian players accounting for the majority of that. PUBG Mobile and Tencent's market value are booming... until India decided to pull the plug on the game.
2 - 14 billion fall in market value
The company's listing on the stock market of China has been crashing heavily since yesterday morning, seeing a drop from HK $545 to HK $537 just before the lunch break. For the rest of the day, it fell even lower to HK $533. With Tencent being a multi-billion dollar company, for just that small a drop, they have lost 14 billion dollars. It is expected that their stock would go even lower today and tomorrow.
3 - What's the future of PUBG Mobile in India?
With PUBG Mobile being such a big loss to China, it is possible that the Chinese government would back down on the border conflict in order to save one of their company from this kind of financial disaster. However, as India and China have been at this for years, it is possible for the squabble to last for quite a while - enough to completely kill PUBG Mobile in India.
They could also try selling PUBG Mobile India to another Indian company, just like what Tik Tok did, of course.
Interested in more of our articles related to the PUBG Mobile ban in India? Please check out this post to find out about the top 10 Alternatives for PUBG Mobile.