Anti-Chinese sentiment has grown in India in recent weeks as the two countries vie for a border dispute.
One Touch App Labs, the app developer, defined it as a tool to support “self-sufficient India” by identifying the origin of the applications installed on mobile phones. The company was not reached for comment on Wednesday.
Remove China Apps was downloaded more than 4 million times before being removed, according to the analysis company Sensor Tower. In India, nearly 160,000 users rated the app with a 5-star rating on the Play Store before it was removed.
However, according to some users, it was not entirely effective in detecting apps from Chinese developers.
On Tuesday, user Sridhar Toopurani wrote in an app review that “while the concept is good … it didn’t detect MI Video, Helo etc.”
Mi Video is a streaming app from the Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi e
Helo is the social media platform developed by ByteDance, the startup based in Beijing behind TikTok. Other users said the app failed to detect PUBG, a popular smartphone game from
Tencent (TCEHY).
The app identified TikTok as a Chinese app, according to several reviews. India is one of TikTok’s largest markets, although it has encountered some problems in the country. The app was banned temporarily in India last year after a court ruled that TikTok could expose children to sexual predators, pornographic content and cyberbullying. TikTok appealed the decision, saying it had repressed the inappropriate content, and
the court reversed his sentence. At the moment, Bytedance
reported he told the country’s supreme court that he was losing $ 500,000 in revenue every day that TikTok was blocked.
Remove China app It was launched last month a few days after a cross-border skirmish between Chinese and Indian forces caused minor injuries to the troops.
The incident, in a remote mountainous crossing near Tibet, was the latest in a long series of exacerbations of the borders between neighboring powers and fueled a new round of anti-Chinese sentiment in India.
Sonam Wangchuk, an education reformer who was also the inspiration for a famous film character in India, asked Indian comrades to boycott all Chinese things in response to the border conflict.
He shared a YouTube video last week, urging Indian citizens to stop buying Chinese goods, to “use the power of your wallet … and stop practically financing current military bullying.” The video has been viewed over 3.7 million times.
Actor Arshad Warsi turned to his 2.2 million Twitter followers, saying that “he will consciously stop using everything that’s Chinese.”
“Since they are part of most of the things we use, it will take some time, but I know that one day I will be Chinese free. You should try it too,” he added.
The Remove China app drew the attention of the Chinese state tabloid The Global Times.
The Indian software
is “risks being punished by China,” said the tabloid
he wrote, adding that it “drew ridicule from Chinese netizens, who suggest that Indians could” throw away “their Chinese-branded smartphones.”
Tensions between the two countries are increasing, but they also have long-standing commercial relationships.
In the first three months of this year, Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi and Vivo were the best sellers in India, accounting for over half of the market, according to
research firm Canalys. Samsung was third and two other Chinese brands – Realme and Oppo – completed the top five.
India said it would allow Huawei to participate in some 5G tests, while other countries have been much more reluctant to use the Chinese technology company’s products.
Chinese investors have also poured a lot of money into some of India’s most vibrant tech startups.
Digital payments company
Paytm is supported by
Alibaba (BABA), food delivery platform
Swiggy counts
Tencent (TCEHY) between its investors and the auto hail platform
Ola is supported by DiDi Chuxing.
– Vedika Sud contributed to this report.
