NGO Asks Chinese Billionaire To Answer Questions On Alleged Links Of His Company With BGMI Game
Prahar, a non-government organisation, wrote an open letter to Chinese billionaire and founder of Tencent Holdings Pony Ma, posing 10 questions including on allegations pertaining to his company’s linkage with Krafton which runs the multi-player online video game, BGMI-PUBG, in India.
This comes days after the NGO urged the government to block the multiplayer online video game BGMI-PUBG on February 28, claiming it is “a new avatar” of the banned Chinese gaming app PUBG and that it poses “a grave threat” to the security, sovereignty and integrity of India.
SJM had also supported Prahar on the issue and said the government should thoroughly investigate “the antecedents and China influence” of the BGMI-PUBG app and take “immediate action if found in violation”.
“Prahar has written an open letter to the reclusive Chinese billionaire Pony Ma, founder of Tencent Holdings, demanding answers to 10 pointed questions on the antecedents and covert linkages between Krafton, the company which is the current face of BGMI in India and Tencent the former banned owner of PUBG,” it said in a statement.
In its letter, Prahar alleged that the Tencent’s ties with Krafton goes “much deeper” and a “crafty facade” was created to fool the India and its government that PUBG and BGMI are two separate entities “Can you deny that PUBG mobile, called BGMI in India, was first developed by Lightspeed and Quantum which is an internal division of Tencent?” the NGO asked Ma, Chairman and CEO of Tencent Holdings.
In 2019, Techcrunch, a reputed tech publication, reported that Tencent replaced PUBG in China with a patriotic game called Game for Peace, and that this game was developed by Krafton and it is a replica of PUBG with focus on the Chinese Air Force, Prahar underlined and asked Ma, “Can you deny this report?” “The privacy policy of BGMI expressly allows user data to be shared with third parties whose solutions are used in the game. Is it true that BGMI uses third party solutions from the entities affiliated with Tencent?” it also asked.
Prahar alleged that Tencent is among the two biggest shareholders of Krafton.
“Tencent holds 15 per cent stake in Krafton through its 100 per cent subsidiary Image Frame (HK) Ltd. It is believed that Tencent indirectly hold additional stake in Krafton. This additional stake is undisclosed. Can you deny this?” it asked Ma.
The NGO alleged that Tencent Games continues to publish and runs PUBG mobile game in Pakistan, and dared Ma to deny his company’s association with it.
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