The Indian government has banned 54 apps it believes are of Chinese origin, seeing them as a threat to national security.

The 54 apps include Tencent's Xriver, NetEase's video game Onmyoji Chess and Onmyoji Arena, Beauty Camera: Sweet Selfie HD, Beauty Camera - Selfie Camera, Equalizer & Bass Booster, CamCard for SalesForce Ent, Isoland 2: Ashes of Time Lite, Viva Video Editor, AppLock, Dual Space Lite, etc.

Surprisingly, Free Fire, the hit title owned by Singapore-headquartered tech company Sea Limited, is also on the list. Free Fire is a PUBG-like, free-to-play battle royale game with over 150 million daily active users globally.

The game has a strong presence in emerging markets, especially India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. In a report by JPMorgan analyst Ranjan Sharma, he said Free Fire India might account for around 10% of Sea’s gaming revenues, and the ban could further increase nervousness around the Southeast Asian tech firm's gaming franchise.

Founded by Forrest Li, a naturalized Singapore citizen who hails from Tianjin in China, in 2009, Sea has three business lines, gaming platform Gerena, e-commerce business Shopee, and digital payments service SeaMoney. 

Sea's alliance with Tencent is likely to have raised concerns among Indian regulators. The Chinese gaming and social behemoth participated in five funding rounds in Sea between 2014 and 2017, investing a total of approximately $268 million. In addition, Sea has inked a game distribution deal with Tencent in Southeast Asia.

Tencent is lowering its influence in the Southeast Asian tech giant to curb regulatory risks it could face in some markets that are increasingly hostile to Chinese companies. In January, the Shenzhen-based company cut its stake in Sea from 21.3% to 18.7% by selling shares worth between $2.8 billion and $3 billion, and gave up a significant portion of its voting rights.

The "Class B" ordinary shares held by Tencent, each share has three votes, will be all converted into "Class A" shares featuring one vote per share, Sea announced in its filing. Upon conversion, Tencent's voting rights will be lower than 10% while that of Forrest Li, founder, and chairman of Sea, will rise to 57%.

Free Fire is not the first piece of software to be prohibited in India due to alleged ties to China. The South Asian country also banned PUBG Mobile in 2020, citing a potential threat from apps like this because of their linkage to China. 

Image Frame Investment, a subsidiary of Tencent, is the second-largest shareholder of PUBG's developer Krafton, with a 13.6% stake. Tencent Games was the publisher and distributor responsible to make PUBG Mobile available in other countries including India. 

By announcing that Tencent would no longer be its licensed franchise partner, the South Korean developer was able to re-enter the populous market last May with the rebranded game Battlegrounds Mobile India. 

According to NDTV's report, India has blocked 321 apps since the border tension with China flared up in May 2020. The first round of bans was announced in June 2020, and then in June last year, India banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, WeChat, and AliExpress citing a threat to the nation's sovereignty and security. 

Following the latest ban, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has again called on the Indian government to block Sea's e-commerce platform Shopee, saying it also stores its data on Tencent Cloud.

Shares of Sea plunged 18.39% today to close at $129.17 apiece, with a market capitalization of $72 billion.