Paytm Launches Its Own Mini App Store

BENGALURU : Digital payments firm Paytm has launched a mini-app store to support Indian developers, in a direct challenge to Google’s dominance in the space. The launch of the store follows the payment app being temporarily removed from Google’s Play Store on 18 September for violating developer guidelines on real-money gaming. While the removal of the app may be a trigger, Paytm’s move is perhaps a direct fallout of Google mandating that developers listed on its Play Store use its billing service. Last week, startup founders such as Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Razorpay’s Harshil Mathur, along with 50 other founders, discussed the possibility of building an Indian app store to challenge Google. “Other app stores have not been able to catch up with Google Play because they lack network effects. Google’s Play Store is mandatory to make use of Google Mobile Services, that includes other apps such as Google Maps,” Manjunath Bhat, senior director analyst at Gartner, told Mint last week. On 29 September, Google said, “Play distributed apps must use Google Play’s billing and revenue sharing system as the method of payment if they require or accept payment for access to features or services, including any app functionality, digital content or goods. This applies only to apps and has been purportedly done to prevent revenue leakages to Google from Google Play from January 2021.”.