Singapore-headquartered Bigo Technology, a subsidiary of JOYY Inc (NASDAQ: YY), is relocating its servers from Hong Kong to Singapore, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The move comes amidst increasing pressure on Chinese-owned companies by the US government. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump issued executive orders to ban Bytedance- and Tencent-related transactions due to concerns about personal data safety.
JOYY acquired Bigo last year for USD 1.45 billion. Bigo competes with Bytedance’s Tiktok via its video-creation app Likee and livestreaming app Bigo Live. While TikTok has been caught in the middle of straining US-China relations, Bigo has not been targeted by US authorities.
Both Likee and Bigo Live were removed from India’s app stores in July following a government ban on Chinese apps, despite Bigo’s insistence that it is based in Singapore.
Although Bigo does not provide services in China, its servers are currently located in Hong Kong. The introduction of a new national security law in July heightened concerns about user data privacy in the territory. Tech firms like Bigo have since started to relocate from the city.
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