At the end of last week, the drama occurred. Around noon on Friday, all of a sudden the popular digital payments platform Paytm disappeared from the Google Play Store for Android phones, at least in India. It’s not that it means that existing Paytm users can no longer use the app (because they can) and it didn’t mean that transactions stopped (because they didn’t). All it meant was that you couldn’t update the Paytm app or couldn’t download it again (but who doesn’t have Paytm on their phone already?). But it did point to something that was worrisome on a larger scale. What was wrong with the Paytm app that justified such a move by Google? Both companies have their own version of the story to share. It turns out that Google ranked some rebate and scratch card offers that Paytm was offering to users ahead of the long-awaited 2020 T20 IPL cricket season, such as gambling and sports betting. But it’s clearly not as black and white as it sounds.
In a statement shared with News18 this morning, Google India says: “Offering cash back and coupons alone does not constitute a violation of our Google Play gambling policies. Last week we reiterated our Play Store gaming policies. Our policies do not allow online casinos or support unregulated gambling applications that facilitate sports betting, including daily fantasy sports in India. “Google India confirms that the policies are in place to ensure a safe experience for consumers. “In the case of repeated violations of the policy, we may take more serious action, which may include canceling Google Play developer accounts. Our policies are applied and enforced by all developers consistently,” they add .
Paytm says that the first communication they received from Google indicated that the Paytm app was being removed from the Play Store in India. The apparent issues that stood out included refunds from UPI and the scratch card campaign that Paytm was running at the time, ahead of the start of the 2020 T20 IPL cricket extravaganza. Paytm confirms that Google did not give them a chance to respond, as is often the norm. “This was the first time Google sent us a notification regarding our scratch card campaign and UPI rebates. Contrary to accepted practice, we were not given the opportunity to respond to their concerns or express our views, ”Paytm says in an official statement. They also add: “We maintain that our money-back campaign was within the guidelines, as well as all the laws of the country. We didn’t break any rules and there was no violation. It is not related to the game in any way. “
A quick look at the global policies of the Google Play Store, which specifically address what it calls “Gambling or real money game ads, contests and tournaments within the applications distributed by Play”, the company states that the advertising of games Gambling, real money games and contests and tournaments are allowed if the local laws of the place allow it. In addition, the ads must not be shown to users under the age of 18 and the application must not be enrolled in the Designed for Families program. At this time, it is unclear if Paytm has signed up for this program.
A quick browsing through the Google Play Store listings in India seems to tell its own confusing story. A simple search for “fantasy cricket” in the Play Store for Android phones lists applications including Fantasy Cricket, CricPlay, India’s first free fantasy cricket game, Team11Fantasy, free fantasy cricket and more. Even if these apps don’t always allow fantasy league transactions or games, they are surely advertising such activities. However, it is interesting to note that Dream11, which is the title sponsor of the IPL 2020 tournament and this year’s Mobile Premier League, or MPL, which is the main sponsor of Kolkata Night Riders, has Android apps, but they offer direct links to download and complete the steps on how to download applications on Android devices, and not through the official Google Play store.
You may not be surprised to learn that Google Pay in India was also trying to capitalize on the excitement before the return of cricket, with the 2020 IPL. Google Pay was running its own “Tez Shots” campaign with rewards of up to Rs 1 lakh, and they would get score-based rewards for different services they use on Google Pay. Google Pay competes with Paytm in the digital payments space in India. It’s unclear if Google has a different set of policy guidelines for its own apps, or if Google has different filters in place for demographic age and location with respect to content shown to users in its apps.
Paytm also notes that Google India has also raised a policy non-compliance issue in the past when Paytm announced its own subsidiary, Paytm Games, on the app. However, Google India had no problem when Paytm Games advertised itself via paid promotions on the YouTube platform.
In June, research and strategy firm Zinnov had released data suggesting that Paytm has 39 million daily active users (DAUs) in the country, while Google Pay logs in with around 19 million DAUs.
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