Bangalore / New Delhi: The altercation between tech giant Google and major fintech Paytm has brought the global debate on app store monopolies to India. The startup founders and venture capitalists (VCs) of the country’s startup ecosystem are speaking out against the power that the Android maker wields over its platform applications.
According to a founder who has apps listed on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, it is almost impossible for an Indian company to challenge the Indian app store policies legally, as Google follows US standards for disputes. legal.
“Facing a giant like Google in the Indian courts involves high legal and judicial costs, and the battle will be incredibly long … because these big internet companies do not fully follow the Indian rules and regulations and a developer could have. done. to fight a competing case also in the United States court, “said the founder.
“Paytm could comply with Google policies instantly after being unlisted without notice, and put back online, because they have a great engineering and development team to immediately re-edit the application and comply in a matter of hours. But when it comes to smaller app developers or a founder who has fewer than 50,000 users, you are likely to lose users per minute. It will surely hurt the business, “he added.
According to Ramesh Kailasam, CEO of technology lobby IndiaTech.org, abruptly removing an app from the Play Store is tantamount to enforcing some kind of ban, and both the app and its publisher take a hit. “There is disruption and mistrust in the mind of the consumer due to the abrupt delisting because their real money is in the wallet in the case of Paytm. In addition, closing an application in a market, whose mobile operating system is used by more than 90% of the market, also means that you are closing the distribution of the publisher of the application, “he said.
“It is also strange that Google prohibits online fantasy game applications in its app store, while its closest competitor Apple actually allows it,” he added.
Some developers have also chosen to remove their apps from Google Play to continue their business.
According to Dibyojyoti Mainak, vice president for policy and legal affairs at the Mobile Premier League (MPL), the exclusion from the Play Store has been “great for their business.”
“Google charges a considerable margin (for transactions and payments in the application). What we saved there was funneled to our developer partners and players. We went from about 15 million, when we were removed from the list, to 60 million users with almost a billion dollars in GMV, ”he said.
According to attorneys, even if Paytm took legal recourse in this matter, it could still have a difficult time.
“It is very easy to show that Google is dominant. But under the Competition Law, PayTM will have to show that what Google is doing is an unfair business practice or an abuse of domain, “said Alok P. Kumar, co-founder of the Vidhi Center for Legal Policy.
“It will have to show how Google is affecting competition in the market and how it is affecting consumer welfare in the market,” he added.
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