Google hasn’t had a great time, at least late, with the Indian app developers. And things have been brewing for a while. Perhaps especially in the background, and sometimes on the international stage. But, when Paytm, India’s leading digital payments platform, took on Google last month, things really started to unfold since then. The concerns of Indian app developers mainly revolve around what they believe are unfair policies that Google wants to implement for developers who have an app on the Play Store. Either for advertising, or for a part of the payments within the application. The pushback has helped. Google postpones the implementation of the new Google Play Billing Policy until April 2022.
Earlier this month, up to 150 Indian app developers met unofficially to go ahead with the idea of an alternative app store, something that will reduce the dependence of Android smartphone users on the official Google Play store. At the forefront of this was Paytm, which actually launched its Paytm Mini App Store this morning. The most outstanding? No reduction of 30% in transactions made in the application. The trigger? A new Google Play Billing Policy that dictates a 30% cut in in-app transactions made by users using the Google Play platform. Google’s reaction? The company has delayed the implementation of the 30% commission for Indian app developers until April next year.
“When you take what we earn, they don’t grow together. It grows at our expense. Young colleagues seek tax breaks and government vacations. And Google takes all this money spent by Indians on other Indians’ apps to other regions. Depriving us of our capital investments, jobs and growth, ”says Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm, in a tweet. He has been one of the most staunch opponents of Google’s often opaque policies. Paytm had a dispute with Google last month when Google removed the Paytm app from the Play Store, just before the start of the IPS 2020 cricket tournament, citing that some of the cash back offers available on the platform amounted to gambling. The app was later reset and Paytm had pointed out at the time that Google’s own Google Pay app in India had similar offerings. Google Pay competes with Paytm in the digital payments space.
But is it really new? Despite all the protests and anger at the 30% commission Google wants to charge for in-app transactions, it’s not exactly new. However, there are changes that concern Indian app developers. Google contends that of all developers in the app store, less than 3% of developers with apps on Play sold digital products in the past 12 months. The company also says that of this 3%, up to 97% of developers already use Google Play billing. This is where the big compliance requirement kicks in, and it’s all the rage. Google had said that those developers who need to update their applications to comply with Google Play’s new billing policy will have until September 30, 2021 to make those changes to the applications. New apps or updates sent to the Play Store after January 20, 2021 must comply with the rules. All of that is now overdue.
“We have always required developers who distribute their apps on Play to use the Google Play billing system if they offer in-app purchases of digital products and pay a service fee of a percentage of the purchase. To be clear, this policy only applies to less than 3% of developers with apps on Google Play. We only charge a service fee if the developer charges users to download their app or if they sell digital items embedded in the app, and we think that’s fair, ”said Sameer Samat, vice president of product management, in an official statement announcing The policy changes late last month.
It is not as simple as it seems. Until now, if an Indian application developer was using an alternative payment method and not Google Play, now they will have to use the Google Play platform and pay Google a 30% commission for each transaction made.
It all started when Google removed the Paytm app from the Google Play Store just before the 2020 IPL cricket tournament began. It turns out that Google ranked some cash back and scratch card offers that Paytm was offering to users ahead of the long-awaited season. 2020 T20 IPL cricket markets, such as gambling and sports betting. Paytm had said that the first communication they received from Google said that the Paytm app was being removed from the Play Store in India. By the way, Google Pay was running their own “Tez Shots” campaign with rewards up to Rs 1 lakh, and they would earn rewards based on scores for the different services they use in Google Pay.
Paytm wasn’t the only app in the line of fire. Popular food delivery platforms Zomato and Swiggy also received notices from Google India for possibly violating Play Store guidelines.. These platforms ran similar offerings, such as Zomato Premier League with in-app games and features. So far, Google has not shared an official statement on why these apps were specifically targeted at potential gambling and sports betting related offenses.
“Seeds have been sown and belatedly you will see an entire forest grow #AtmaNirbharBharat,” writes Vishal Gondal, CEO of GOQii on Twitter, while tagging Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
Right now, Paytm Mini App Store is off to a good start. On board are Ola, 1 mg, Practo, Domino’s Pizza, McDonald’s, Cure.fit, Gaana, Booking.com and Faasos. More Indian app developers can be expected to join in the coming days, all of which puts even more pressure on Google in India. This in itself propels Paytm to become a super app, now including digital payments, investing, a shopping platform, and now even an app store, to name a few.
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