China’s cyberspace regulator announced on Wednesday the names of the first batch of mobile app stores that have completed registration of detailed business information with regulators, indicating that China’s cyberspace regulator has begun implementing new regulations to expand the supervision of mobile applications.
According to the Cyberspace Administration of China, 26 app stores operated by Tencent, Huawei, Ant Financial, Baidu, Xiaomi, Samsung and other companies have submitted registrations to the Cyberspace Administration of China.
Apple’s App Store is not among the app stores on the list. Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Over the past few years, Beijing has been expanding regulations on the use of smartphones and mobile apps. The country now requires mobile app stores and mobile apps to submit business details to the government.
The regulations have caused panic in the industry that publishing apps in the world’s second-largest economy will become very difficult and many apps may need to be removed.
In June last year, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued a new regulation requiring app stores to submit business details and said app stores would be held accountable if their apps contained illegal content. Beijing’s efforts to step up app censorship became a The focus of people’s attention.
In August this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued another notice requiring mobile applications to complete registration before the end of March.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that app stores run by companies including Tencent and Huawei had begun requiring apps in their app stores to comply with the new rules.
Apple has not yet revealed how its App Store in China will comply with Beijing’s new rules. Experts say Apple’s compliance could result in tens of thousands of apps being removed from Apple’s China App Store.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
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