Indian Startups want to create their own store to avoid paying Google commission

Startups and India’s largest IT companies have teamed up against Google, which controls 99% of the smartphone market in the country. Local developers intend to create their own store in order not to pay a 30% commission on Google Play.What made Indian companies unite?

For the first time, the creation of a coalition was discussed a few weeks ago, when Google officially required developers to conduct all transactions through its payment system.

• The company gave the creators of paid or in-app purchases a year to connect to the Google payment system;Indian companies opposed this decision, considering the need to pay a 30% commission for each transaction impractical;
• Last month, Google also updated the rules regarding gambling applications.
• As a result, this became the official reason for the removal of India’s largest payment service Paytm from the store (this happened after the developers added to the application the ability to collect stickers with cricketers and exchange them for cashback; now Paytm is available again on Google Play);in addition, Google sent a warning about the violation of guidelines to the developers of the food delivery services Swiggy and Zomato, as well as the streaming service Hotstar;
• Concern about Google’s actions is largely due to the fact that 99% of smartphones in India run on Android, which gives the American company a kind of monopoly in the market.
• Even though Google allows users to download apps not only from their store, most people in India still use the Play Store exclusively.Who is in the coalition?

TechCrunch reports that more than 150 startups and companies are working on the initiative.

• Among them are Paytm, MakeMyTrip, ShareChat and many others;Last Tuesday, about 60 heads of local companies held preliminary talks on the creation of an association to confront Google;
• also, hundreds of other startups expressed their desire to join the coalition after the first online meeting;
• “We have yet to determine the structure of this coalition, but Google definitely forced us to create it,” said Vishal Gondal, CEO of fitness startup GOQii.
• What do Indian companies want to achieve?

Since it is difficult for developers in India to distribute applications outside of Google Play, they want to create their own store;

• most likely, companies cannot do without government intervention in solving this problem.
• Google’s huge influence has already aroused the interest of the local government, which has launched antitrust checks against the company;The companies also want the state to protect the interests of local startups, and intend to reduce Google’s influence on the Indian Internet;
• at the same time, some experts are skeptical about government support.
• “The initiative will work if the country passes a bill that all Android smartphones sold in India must have a built-in local store. But I really would not like the monopoly of one large company to be replaced by the monopoly of the state,” says Aman Nair, policy officer at the Indian Center for Internet and Society.Also on the topic:
  

• Spotify, Epic Games and Match Group formed a coalition against Apple’s policyAndroid 11 was released
• Google has launched a children’s mode for Android tablets
• Is there any news?