Days after the Indian government banned the prominent gaming app PUBG and other 117 Chinese apps from the country under the grounds that these applications are prejudicial to the integrity and security of the country, Tencent Holdings Ltd, which is the Chinese gaming and social media group, said that it would engage with the Indian authorities. 

According to Reuters, the Tencent group, which is the maker of the PUBG gaming app in mobile version, said on Thursday that it takes the protection of user privacy and data seriously, in response to India's banning of Chinese applications. The group asserted that it would engage with the Indian authorities to ensure the continued availability of its applications in India, as it comes with the new hope to live in the market.

Under the banner of security concerns, India has on Wednesday banned 118 Chinese apps including PUBG, Baidu, WeChat, Ludo, Music-MP3 player, and FaceU and the ban from the government has been dubbed as the second digital strike against China amid the border disputes and Chinese aggression in Ladakh since May this year. 

In June, days after the border skirmish between the two nations had killed 20 Indian soldiers, the Indian government had banned 57 Chinese apps including TikTok, Shareit, UCBrowser, and CamScanner under the same grounds of being prejudicial to the integrity and security of the country. Following that, India has now banned 118 more Chinese apps with the view of giving a digital blow to the neighbor. 

PUBG has been on the top of the list of the most favorite and downloaded gaming apps in India and the battleground game has attained a major outreach and popularity in the Indian gaming ecosystem and in 2019, over 50 million Indians had played this game, which denotes its arm in the country and India has been one of the significant markets for Tencent Holdings Ltd, which is the maker of PUBG. 

Though PUBG was created by the South Korean based Bluehole gaming company, Tencent, which is one of China's biggest gaming companies, had brought its mobile version. As the sequel of the ban from India, the Tencent group had endured a big blow in the global markets as the mobile version of the game had been prominently played in India. 

According to the reports, Tencent has lost $14 billion in its market value and its shares had fallen by 2% on Thursday after India has banned PUBG. On Thursday, the company's share at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange had closed at $69 per share while it was at $71 the day before. Tencent has got a large base of users in India as PUBG had witnessed nearly 175 million installs in the country. 

The reports say that India was the largest country for PUBG Mobile downloads generating 175 million installs - 24% of the global installation rate and the sudden ban from such a huge market had levied an adverse effect on Tencent both economically and technologically at the global stage which has brought the company to engage with the Indian authorities by giving the assurance that it would take the protection of user privacy and data seriously. 

The reports stated that its hope of ensuring its markets in India would less likely be met. The ban on PUBG has come amid the nation has been witnessing a strong voice to curb the game from the country as the gaming app had been accused of being violent, addictive, and distracting the students from their regular course of lives. This has been the second biggest blow for Tencent at the global stage as the company had lost $66 billion last month when US President Donald Trump had banned the WeChat app from his country.

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