Xiaomi has silently pulled its music participant and streaming app Mi Music from the Play Store in India, persevering with its shutdown of assorted companies in the nation the place it’s beneath regulatory strain.
The China-based telephone maker launched the Mi Music app in partnership with the Indian leisure firm Hungama in 2018 to supply music streaming to its prospects. Archived pages on the internet recommend that the app had greater than 1 billion lifetime downloads.
“Get unlimited access to millions of music, curated playlists, and content from your favorite artists. This is the music app for you to listen to online and offline music,” the Play Store description of the app learn.
Xiaomi didn’t touch upon the removing instantly.
Since final yr, the firm has stopped a number of service choices in India. Last October, Xiaomi wound down its monetary companies enterprise in the nation together with a mortgage app known as Mi Credit. At the identical time, the firm stopped providing its cloud backup service globally. The telephone maker additionally discontinued its quick video app Zilli earlier this yr.
Additionally, the Indian authorities banned Xiaomi’s browser, video name and group app together with a swathe of Chinese apps together with TikTok, Shein, and UC Browser in 2020.
Xiaomi has confronted a difficult time in India amid a regulatory crackdown over tax evasion points and an govt exodus. Last yr, the firm’s long-time high exec Manu Kumar Jain — who oversaw Xiaomi’s development in India from the begin — left the firm. Earlier this yr, the firm carried out layoffs to restructure its operations and minimize prices.
In June, the Enforcement Directorate of India despatched a discover to Xiaomi and companion banks alleging that the telephone maker despatched unlawful remittances price $725 million to international entities in the identify of royalty funds. The company has frozen the financial institution accounts of the firm since final yr.
All these elements have seen the firm slip from the first place to the third place in the smartphone market in India in accordance with analyst stories.