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India’s government has blocked Bytedance’s TikTok and Tencent Music Entertainment’s QQ Music from devices in the country, as it officially bans 59 Chinese-owned mobile apps. Other apps now banned in India, per a government announcement today (June 29) include Baidu’s Baidu Map and Alibaba’s UC Browser, in addition to social video app Kwai and filesharing app ShareIt. India’s Ministry of Information Technology claims that the blocked apps are “prejudicial to [the] sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”. Relations between India and China worsened earlier this month, after 20 Indian soldiers were killed on the disputed Himalayan border with China. The Indian army claimed that these deaths were the result of a “violent face-off” with Chinese soldiers. In April, data monitor SensorTower reported that TikTok had surpassed 2 billion downloads worldwide. Its data suggested that India had been the biggest driver of this growth, with 6...

Resso, the music streaming app owned by TikTok parent Bytedance, has today (March 4) publicly launched in India, taking on the likes of SPOT, plus Gaana, JioSaavn and Apple Music in the market. Resso  reportedly launches in India with a split price offering: there’s a free-to-use tier which offers music streaming at 128kbps, while a paid tier is available for Rs 99 ($1.35) per month on Android and Rs 119 ($1.62) per month on iOS. Both paid options offer streaming up to 256kbps with no advertising. The launch of Resso in India has been licensed by the likes of Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Beggars Group and Merlin, as well as large local India-based rightsholders such as T-Series, Saregama, Zee Music, Times Music and Tips. Notice a company name missing there? Yup: Universal Music Group. As TechCrunch points out, UMG is set to sell 10% of its business (possibly up to 20% over the course of time) to Tencent Holdings Ltd, following the ...