China's top e-commerce platforms have received an order to halt selling of unmanned aerial vehicles, more commonly known as drones, due to the military parade in Beijing on Sept. 3.
Taobao.com said in a statement that the Ministry of Public Security had told them to stop the sale of drones and other aerospace devices until Friday. The firm released the statement last week.
Aside from Taobao.com, major online shopping platforms JD.com and Suning.com also received the same direction from the ministry.
Owners of model aircraft have been restricted from flying their planes and drones for sports, advertising campaigns and entertainment from Aug. 22 until Sept. 4, within a 300-kilometer range from Tiananmen Square.
The ban was declared by the Aeronautical Radio Model and Sports Management Center of the General Administration of Sport.
Consumers searching the e-commerce sites could no longer find items when searching for the phrase "unmanned aerial vehicle." They can see the product descriptions but cannot buy the items.
"Exports of our drone products comprise a large percentage of total sales, so we are not worried about the ban on sales. The company will strengthen cooperation with Tencent to manufacture more civilian drones," said Yu Shengxin, sales manager of Shenzhen Jiuxing Tianli Technology Co.
Rapoo Technology, another drone-maker based in Shenzhen, said that the restriction did not affect their sales performance since they have other offline sales coming from other cities aside from Beijing and online selling will normalize operations on Friday, according to a report by Securities Times.
Analysts stated that security is the main concern for banning unmanned aerial vehicles in Beijing.
"The percentage of online purchases of drone and aerospace products by consumers is much higher than that for offline sales. Moreover, unmanned aerial vehicle companies are mainly small startups, so they are more susceptible to such a situation," She Shuanglin, analyst at Internet consultancy company Analysys International, told China Daily.
"There are still no effective measures to manage and supervise the drone industry, including production standards, industry technology standards and market admission standards," she added.