Alibaba canceled in China? Company’s browser removed from Chinese app stores

Alibaba hit with another snag after its UC Browser disappeared from some Chinese app stores.

Apparently, the browser was deleted from most app platforms in China, and this comes only a day after President Xi Jinping declared that the country’s crackdown on big tech companies is just starting.

The app stores that canceled Alibaba

As per CNBC, Alibaba’s browser was suddenly removed from several app stores in Beijing, and it was mentioned that it includes the Xiaomi and Huawei app stores. It can’t be helped that this development makes the public think that this has something to do with the company’s CEO Jack Ma’s feud with the Chinese government.

People can no longer download Alibaba’s UC Browser as this has already been blocked, and this was revealed by Xiaomi and Huawei phone users. Chinese companies were singled out since those who use Samsung phones shared that they can still see the Alibaba browser in its app store. It is also available in Apple’s app store as well.

At any rate, it was reported that the UC Browser vanished after it was publicly criticized on a television show that is airing on a CCTV network, a state-owned broadcasting company. The browser was blasted about alleged misleading medical advertising.

The show accused Alibaba’s browser of letting private hospitals’ names appear under the best hospitals in China keyword searches. According to the TV program, this lures the patients to the websites of those hospitals instead of directing them to the public medical facilities that they are supposed to visit.

Alibaba’s response to its browser pull out

Alibaba’s UC Browser team explained the points raised on the show. They also said that the illegal ad contents that the CCTV shows mentioned were immediately taken down.

“We attach high importance to problems shown in the show, and quickly conducted a series of measures to check and correct,” the company’s spokesman told CNBC. “We will further enhance content review and shoulder more responsibility, and provide good info services with stricter standards.”

Meanwhile, the removal of Alibaba’s browser also happened just a day after China the company to get rid of some of its media assets. Econotimes reported that Beijing wants the company to discard those properties after discovering how vast the company’s media interest is, and the state sees this as a threat.