Huawei Removes Tencent Games in Dispute Over Cooperation

(Bloomberg) -- Huawei Technologies Co. removed Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s games from its app store as some terms of cooperation are changing between the two technology giants.

The action was taken after Tencent made a “big change” on Dec. 31 to how the companies work with each other, according to an official announcement posted on Huawei’s gaming app. It didn’t elaborate on details of the change.

While most smartphones in China use Google’s Android operating system, the U.S. company’s Play store isn’t available and apps are instead sold by mainland manufacturers and others. Huawei was the biggest smartphone maker in the country during the September quarter with 43% of shipments, according to Counterpoint Research.

Huawei said its decision followed an assessment by its legal team and was based on the premise that Tencent is unilaterally asking to halt cooperation. A check on Huawei’s app store showed that Tencent games such as the Chinese version of Arena of Valor are no longer available.

Tencent’s game products were removed from Huawei’s app store early Friday, when the promotion agreement between the companies expired before a new one could be reached, a Tencent spokesperson said in a statement in response to Bloomberg’s inquiries.

“We are communicating and negotiating with Huawei’s mobile game platform for a solution, and hope to resume our services soonest possible,” it said.

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With assistance from Bloomberg