India has banned ByteDance-owned TikTok and several other Chinese apps, there is one company based there that’s very active in the country — BabyBus.
Experts have raised questions over the handling of Indians’ data by the company that provides customised free digital content primarily for children up to age eight through over 200 gaming apps.
“BabyBus’s gaming apps are massively popular in India and Indonesia,” according to a recent report by data intelligence firm Sensor Tower. They “collectively accounted for a 60% share of (gaming app) downloads in Asia in Q3 2023”.
According to recent data from privacy research firm Incogni, three of the top 11 most “data-hungry” child-targeted apps in the world are from the BabyBus stable. These are Baby Panda World: Kids Games (over 100 million downloads), BabyBus Kids: Video&Game World (over 10 million downloads) and Baby Panda’s Kids Play (over 10 million downloads).
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Threat to Local Players
All three apps are available on the Google Play Store in India.
Among the top 10 apps for kids in India, there are four BabyBus apps, said Incogni spokesperson Emilia Dias. These are Little Panda: Princess Makeup (ranked fourth), Little Panda’s Ice Cream Game (fifth), Little Panda: Sweet Bakery (seventh) and Baby Panda’s School Bus (ninth).
When reviewing these apps, ET found that it collects details of the device and other IDs, app information