TikTok Rival Bigo Shifts Servers From Hong Kong

Bigo Technology, a smaller rival of embattled Chinese appmaker ByteDance, is shifting servers from Hong Kong to Singapore, out of the reach of a new national security law at a time when it is seeking to emphasise independence from its Chinese parent.

The move, which follows India's ban on the firm's apps during this year's flare-up in hostilities between New Delhi and Beijing, comes as the United States toughens scrutiny of Chinese-owned firms in one of its most promising markets.

Bigo, whose equivalent app, Likee, and live streaming app, Bigo Live, compete with TikTok, has not been named by US authorities, but a senior official of the firm said it hoped "not to be caught in the crossfire”.

"The unfortunate thing is sometimes we can't control what other people think," Mike Ong, vice president of government relations, said in an interview at the firm's headquarters in Hong Kong.

Ong said the firm runs "totally independently" of Joyy , a US-listed Chinese tech firm that bought it last year in a deal valuing Bigo at US$2.1 billion. Bigo is an abbreviation of "Before I Get Old."

Joyy’s chief executive, Chinese national David Li, is a co-founder and chairman of both companies.

Ong, who worked with Singapore's telecoms regulator before joining Bigo late last year, said it does not provide services ion the mainland, and has its own management, resources and infrastructure, including data centres.

"There's a certain apprehension with what's going on in Hong Kong," said Ong. "To be safe, we have decided to make sure that we relocate them (servers) to Singapore."

Bigo's biggest data centre capacity is in Singapore, along with other markets where it operates, such as India, the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

Still, despite its repeated assertions of independence and Singapore origins, India banned it, along with some Chinese apps, in June as presenting threats to the South Asian nation's "sovereignty and integrity", after a border clash with China.

India is among Bigo's biggest markets and the base of more than a fifth of its global staff of 5,000.

Bigo said it had appealed to both Singapore and Indian governments for help in the matter. Neither immediately responded to a request for comment. (Reuters)