Why was the Chinese app Bigo Live banned?

In June 2020, the Indian Government banned 59 Chinese apps. The reasons given were&nbsp;security and privacy concerns of Indian users.&nbsp;Bigo, the live streaming app&nbsp;particularly popular among teenagers, was one of&nbsp;the banned apps.&nbsp;It was widely believed that border disputes between India and China were responsible for the bans.&nbsp;



What was&nbsp;Bigo’s&nbsp;reaction to the ban?&nbsp; Bigo&nbsp;didn’t lose hope and kept trying to re-start in India, declaring that regulations specified by the government of India would be followed. But there were no concrete answers to&nbsp;Bigo’s&nbsp;appeals.&nbsp;So&nbsp;this year the company has officially shut shop and&nbsp;has moved most&nbsp;its employees out.&nbsp;But&nbsp;Bigo&nbsp;Live has been banned in&nbsp;Pakistan too, and the USA has security concerns about it.&nbsp;So&nbsp;is there something more than border politics affecting the app?&nbsp;&nbsp;



What is&nbsp;Bigo&nbsp;Live?&nbsp; Bigo&nbsp;Live is a live-streaming app, with 2 types of content:&nbsp;Online&nbsp;video&nbsp;gaming, and live&nbsp;streams of&nbsp;famous Asian people.&nbsp;While the app’s target is Asia; kids in the US and parts of Europe are also playing games on it.&nbsp;Bigo&nbsp;Live uses gaming currency called ‘beans’, and it’s not very clear how the system works, making it easy to get cheated with in-app purchases.&nbsp;&nbsp;



What are the threats on&nbsp;BIGO Live?&nbsp; Bigo&nbsp;Live’s&nbsp;content is often laced with explicit language, sexually inappropriate videos and doses of violence.&nbsp;The&nbsp;app’s website&nbsp;looks like a typical cute and fun app for teens and young adults.&nbsp;That makes it even more problematic since children do not suspect anything sinister while signing up,&nbsp;and concerned parents will not find anything objectionable at first glance.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The next big problem lies with the gaming part of&nbsp;Bigo&nbsp;Live. Concerns started arising in the US over the way&nbsp;Bigo&nbsp;managed to make kids spend. The&nbsp;Bigo&nbsp;Beans were attractively low in pricing, with more than 200 Beans available for a dollar. This lured kids into betting behaviour as they spent more and more without realising how much they were losing. In-app purchases were another shocker on parents’ credit card bills.

Was the ban only the result of India-China border face-off?  

Not all politics: Why was Chinese app Bigo Live banned in India?

Was the ban only a result of the India-China border face-off? Or is there something wrong with Bigo Live?

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