NEW DELHI/SEOUL, July 29 (Reuters) - India's government blocked a popular battle-royale format game from Krafton Inc (259960.KS), a South Korean company backed by China's Tencent (0700.HK), as it was concerned about its data sharing and mining in China, an Indian government source said.

New Delhi used powers it has under India's IT law to block Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), relying on a provision it has invoked since 2020 to ban several other Chinese apps on national security concerns, said the government official and another source with direct knowledge.

Advertisement · Scroll to continueReport an ad

The Indian government has not publicly announced the blocking. But the app was removed from Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google Play Store and Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) App Store as of Thursday evening in India.

The removal of BGMI, which had more than 100 million users in India, comes after the South Asian country's 2020 ban of another Krafton title, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG).

The PUBG crackdown was part of New Delhi's ban of more than 100 mobile apps of Chinese origins, following a months-long border standoff between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Advertisement · Scroll to continueReport an ad

The ban has expanded since to cover more than 300 apps, including popular gaming app 'Free Fire', owned by Singapore's technology group Sea Ltd (SE.N).

Tencent held a 13.5% stake in Krafton as of end-March through an investment vehicle, according to Krafton's regulatory filing.

Krafton shares slumped more than 9% on the news on Friday, later paring losses to close down 4.5% in Seoul. The company said in May India accounted for a high single digit percentage of its revenue in the first quarter of this year.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

NEW DELHI/SEOUL, July 29 (Reuters) - India's government blocked a popular battle-royale format game from Krafton Inc (259960.KS), a South Korean company backed by China's Tencent (0700.HK), as it was concerned about its data sharing and mining in China, an Indian government source said.

New Delhi used powers it has under India's IT law to block Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), relying on a provision it has invoked since 2020 to ban several other Chinese apps on national security concerns, said the government official and another source with direct knowledge.

Advertisement · Scroll to continueReport an ad

The Indian government has not publicly announced the blocking. But the app was removed from Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google Play Store and Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) App Store as of Thursday evening in India.

The removal of BGMI, which had more than 100 million users in India, comes after the South Asian country's 2020 ban of another Krafton title, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG).

The PUBG crackdown was part of New Delhi's ban of more than 100 mobile apps of Chinese origins, following a months-long border standoff between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Advertisement · Scroll to continueReport an ad

The ban has expanded since to cover more than 300 apps, including popular gaming app 'Free Fire', owned by Singapore's technology group Sea Ltd (SE.N).

Tencent held a 13.5% stake in Krafton as of end-March through an investment vehicle, according to Krafton's regulatory filing.

Krafton shares slumped more than 9% on the news on Friday, later paring losses to close down 4.5% in Seoul. The company said in May India accounted for a high single digit percentage of its revenue in the first quarter of this year.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue