Xiaomi removes its Mi Music app from the Play Retailer | TechCrunch

Xiaomi has silently pulled its music participant and streaming app Mi Music from the Play Retailer in India, persevering with its shutdown of varied providers within the nation the place it’s underneath regulatory stress.

The China-based cellphone maker launched the Mi Music app in partnership with the Indian entertainment company Hungama in 2018 to supply music streaming to its clients. Archived pages on the internet recommend that the app had greater than 1 billion lifetime downloads.

“Get limitless entry to thousands and thousands of music, curated playlists, and content material out of your favourite artists. That is the music app so that you can take heed to on-line and offline music,” the Play Retailer description of the app learn.

Xiaomi didn’t touch upon the elimination instantly.

Since final yr, the corporate has stopped a number of service choices in India. Final October, Xiaomi wound down its financial services business in the country together with a mortgage app referred to as Mi Credit score. On the identical time, the corporate stopped offering its cloud backup service globally. The cellphone maker additionally discontinued its short video app Zilli earlier this yr.

Moreover, the Indian authorities banned Xiaomi’s browser, video name and group app together with a swathe of Chinese apps including 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 government exodus. Final yr, the corporate’s long-time prime exec Manu Kumar Jain — who oversaw Xiaomi’s development in India from the beginning — left the company. Earlier this yr, the corporate conducted layoffs to restructure its operations and reduce prices.

In June, the Enforcement Directorate of India sent a notice to Xiaomi and accomplice banks alleging that the cellphone maker despatched unlawful remittances value $725 million to overseas entities within the identify of royalty funds. The company has frozen the financial institution accounts of the corporate since final yr.

All these facets have seen the corporate slip from the primary place to the third position in the smartphone market in India based on analyst stories.