Paytm has created a ₹10-crore fund to help developers use its recently launched mini app store in a bid to take on Google.

“We are committed to developing a technology ecosystem that champions the innovations of Indian developers. We are not just backend developers; India developers can build the best apps in the world. Today, we are announcing a ₹10-crore investment fund for Mini App developers in the country. A ₹10-crore equity investment with some of the most lenient investment terms that you can expect. An encouragement for our developers to port their apps or create new ones for the mini app platform,” said Vijay Shekhar Sharma at a developer conference, adding that Paytm is hoping to sign up 1 million apps on the new platform before Google plans to make Play Store billing mandatory for Indian developers by April 2022.

“We are going to do a city-wise campaign to get more and more app developers on the mini app store,” said Shekhar. “We want to do good things for the developers in India,” he added. The platform will not charge the apps any listing fee to the mini app developers, and is providing free payment avenues such as Paytm Wallet, Paytm Payments Bank and UPI. However, a 2 per cent charge will be levied on credit cards. Over 5,000 developers from all corners of the country, including Latur, Thrissur, Udaipur, Indore, Vadodara, Reeva, Dewas, Kochi, Farrukhabad, Ramgarh, Nashik, Patna and Aurangabad, attended the Paytm conference.

Own payments system

This comes even as Google last month announced that it would require apps to use its own payments system with a few exceptions. It will be charging a 30 per cent transaction fee for all in-apps purchases from April 2022.

Speaking at the conference, Vishal Gondal, founder, GOQii, said that foreign companies such as Google do not comply with Indian rules. “They just act as a money collection company here,” he said, adding that Paytm’s mini app store offers freedom to Indian app developers.

Rajesh Sawhney, Founder, GSF Accelerator, said that there is no place for a single gate keeper and that too from a foreign country. “The main issue is consumer choice. How can we have that 95 per cent of app store ecosystem in India is controlled by Google. This will be abused in many ways,” said Sawhney.

J Murugavel, Founder, Matrimony.com, said that Google controls India’s internet. “Google’s tax is like a distributor asking for 30 per cent of the sales revenue as a cut. Today, we are all at the mercy of Google. We don’t know when they will remove the apps, based on some policy that they decide. The Internet in our country is controlled by Google and we all are at its mercy.”

Anand Lunia, founding partner, India Quotient, said that there is a lack of transparency when it comes to financial information on Google operations India.

Paytm, on Wednesday, accused Google of having a double standard in terms of its Play Store policies and its ads business.

Last month, Google removed Paytm and Paytm first games for alleged violations of the Play Store’s gambling policy. Paytm, in a blog post, stated that Google does not allow the company to promote its real money app through its own app. However, it will enable the companies to promote the app on its video-sharing platform YouTube for a “hefty fee”.

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