India plans launch of own app store as alternative to Google, Apple

[Yaseen1]

india has capability but google will fire indian employees in response

 

[艹艹艹]

OCTOBER 5, 202012:26 PMUPDATED 2 DAYS AGO
Google defers Indian in-app fees after angry startups complain

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Google has extended its deadline for Indian app developers to comply with a new billing system for commission fees by six months, it said on Monday, days after local startups voiced anger about the charges.

Google will now enforce its global policy more strictly and charge a 30% commission fee for in-app purchases from Indian developers from March 31, 2022, the company said, saying it was “being mindful of local needs and concerns”.

The move comes after many startups in India banded together to consider ways to challenge the company by lodging complaints with the government and courts over the original deadline for compliance of Sept. 30 next year.

They were upset about the commission fee and also criticised several other Google Play Store policies for hurting their businesses.

“We do not succeed unless our partners succeed,” Google said in a blog post, adding that it will set up “listening sessions” with leading Indian startups to understand their issues.

Last week, Google fixed the enforcement date for the new billing system at Sept. 30, 2021 and said only 3% of apps globally were non-compliant.

The dispute started after Google briefly took down India’s top digital payments app Paytm for violation of certain Play Store policies last month, drawing sharp rebukes from the Softbank-backed Indian company’s founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, and several other entrepreneurs.

Nearly 99% of India’s half a billion smartphones run on Google’s Android mobile operating system. Some Indian startups say that allows Google to exert excessive control over the types of apps and other services they can offer, an allegation the company denies.

“A deferment (of the fees) is just not enough,” said an Indian startup executive, who did not wish to be named. “The gatekeeper of the biggest application store should be fair and transparent.”

The spats have strained Google’s strong ties to Indian startups. It has invested in some and helped hundreds with product development. In July, its Indian-born CEO Sundar Pichai committed $10 billion in new investments over five to seven years.

Globally, app developers have said a 30% fee is excessive compared with the 2% fees for typical credit card payments processors. Google and rival Apple, which charges a similar fee, have said the amount covers the security and marketing benefits their app stores provide.

On Monday, Paytm’s Sharma posted a newspaper clipping of Google’s decision to defer the fee, saying it “proves who is ruling us”.

In recent days, dozens of Indian entrepreneurs held calls to strategise challenging Google legally and by designing a local mobile application to list apps and reduce dependence on Google.

Leading Indian newspapers carried a front-page ad from Paytm on Monday announcing the launch of a “mini app store”.

“Calling all developers. Let’s build India’s Digital Revolution, together,” the ad said, adding there would be no payment charge when a Paytm wallet or a state-backed payment system is used.

 

[BHAN85]

If it's a private entity there is a chance for it to succeed. A government-run app factory is doomed to fail. The sheer diversity of languages, cultural nuances, and a consumer base of 800 billion(?) means a localized India-specific app marketplace has the potential to be successful.

Out of USA is exactly the opposite you say.

A private company can NEVER compete with anti-economic Internet USA bussiness like Google, Youtube, etc...

Do you imagine a Non-USA private company getting profits of a Youtube-type company? It's impossible, you can't get profits paying all that bandwidth, no matter how many users you have, or how many advertising are in your website.

Internet companies are in USA because the data of spy them is useful for world trending prediction, for USA national security and so on, but as a private bussiness is a bankrupt bussiness.

 

[Beefeatergin]

Indian App Store caters to Indian tastes

Online search for child pornography escalates after lockdown in India

As India has been under a tight lockdown since March 23 to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, latest data, however, revealed a rather disturbing trend. The India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) - set up in January 2020 by Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi’s son Bhuvan Ribhu - has found a steep increase in...

www.google.ca

 

[CAPRICORN-88]

India plans launch of own app store as alternative to Google, Apple: Report
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government may ramp up its Mobile Seva App Store for this purpose, the television channel reported, without providing further details.
Reuters | Updated: October 01, 2020, 17:55 IST

India is planning to launch its own app store as an alternate to the ones offered by Apple and Alphabet-owned Google, in a bid to make the country more self-reliant, ET Now reported on Thursday, citing government sources.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1311570567238045696

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government may ramp up its Mobile Seva App Store for this purpose, the television channel reported, without providing further details.

"Android has a 97% market-share in India. So, we should intervene and handhold Indian startups," ET Now quoted government sources as saying, adding that the store would not charge the 30% fee to host apps unlike Google or Apple.

The government is also considering a plan to make it mandatory for Android phones to be pre-installed with its apps, as per the channel's report.

India Startups Join Effort to Break Google, Facebook Dominance
October 01 2020, 4:46 PM October 02 2020, 4:41 AM

(bloomberg) -- founders of dozens of indian startups gathered over a zoom call earlier this week to discuss setting up a startup collective to fight the power of big tech, shape digital policy and lobby on behalf of the country’s digital enterprises.

about 56 founders were on the tuesday evening video conference where discussions ranged from establishing an alternative to alphabet inc.-owned google play store, the supremacy of large technology corporations such as facebook inc. and joining hands to get their voice heard by the government and the global behemoths.

“we, the country’s digital startups, need to have a joint voice so that the government and the people will listen,” said vijay shekhar sharma, the billionaire founder of the country’s leading digital payments brand, paytm. “we can’t let all of india’s digital dreams get controlled by one or two global companies.”

the effort is similar to what is happening in the u.s. where an uprising of startups is protesting the dominance of the google and apple inc. app stores and the fees they charge. additionally, a u.s. antitrust committee is finalizing a report after a 15-month investigation into google, apple, amazon.com inc. and facebook. china too is considering an antitrust probe into google for using its android mobile operating system to suppress competition, reuters reported on wednesday.

the group is toying with several names for the collective including the india internet foundation and the atmanirbhar digital india foundation. atmanirbhar is hindi for self-sufficiency, a key pillar of prime minister narendra modi’s post-pandemic economic policy. the plan is for the founders to meet again to chalk out next steps.

Although it means losing a lot of money.
Better do it quick.
Trump USA will soon be after India starting with restriction on H1B visas.

 

[rent4country]

Out of USA is exactly the opposite you say.

A private company can NEVER compete with anti-economic Internet USA bussiness like Google, Youtube, etc...

Do you imagine a Non-USA private company getting profits of a Youtube-type company? It's impossible, you can't get profits paying all that bandwidth, no matter how many users you have, or how many advertising are in your website.

Internet companies are in USA because the data of spy them is useful for world trending prediction, for USA national security and so on, but as a private bussiness is a bankrupt bussiness.

I'm talking success being more guaranteed in terms of a private versus govt run company.