Alibaba has decided to close its operation UC Browser and UC News in India according to reports in foreign media.
The Indian government previously announced on June 29 that they had decided to block 59 Chinese apps, including UCWeb, Vmate, TikTok, WeChat, and Weibo, due to security concerns.
Information from the company’s employees revealed that Alibaba’s UCWeb is cutting employees in India and some of them were given a layoff notice on July 15th.
In the note, Alibaba said the termination of jobs was due to India ‘s ban on UCWeb and Vmate, which impeded the company’s ability to continue to provide services in India.
Indian local media reports said use of UC Browser in India is second only to Google, and India is a big UC Browser market. UC Browser has more than 430 million users worldwide including over 130 million from India.