Paytm aims to host 1 million apps on Mini App Store, invests Rs 10 crore

For the last few weeks, Paytm and Google have been involved in a bitter battle over the latter's power on Play store. The digital wallet app-maker had introduced an in-app gaming feature based on the Indian Premier League, so it can increase user traffic and monetary transaction.

However, Google deemed the new feature as betting and gambling and temporarily took it down from the Play store. This forced Paytm to suspend the in-game features and returned within a few hours.

However, Google piled on the misery by asking all apps registered with the Play store to mandatorily to incorporate Play billing and this meant, anything the consumer bought on the app, apps had to give 30% commission to Google.

This further enraged Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm and he asked fellow startups and app-makers to form an alliance to take on Google. Also, urge the government to develop an indigenous app store for Indian companies.

Within days, Paytm launched Mini App Store with more than 300 members including Decathalon, Ola, Park+, Rapido, Netmeds, 1MG, Domino's Pizza, FreshMenu, NoBroker, and more.

Must read | Paytm launches Mini App Store: All you need to know

On Thursday (October 8), Sharma hosted the Paytm Mini App Store developer conference to held talks with Vishal Gondal ( founder and CEO of GOQii) and other top entrepreneurs.

During the conference, Sharma announced to invest Rs 10 Cr into the Paytm Mini App Store and hope to support more than one million apps by the end of Q1 next year (April 2021). Also, the company said that the Paytm Mini App platform has a strong user privacy policy and users’ data is completely safe. Paytm does not have access to it at any given time, Sharma added.

It's a very ambitious target to reach in such a short period and only the time will tell.

Must read | Aatmanirbhar Bharat: Modi govt to set-up App Store alternative to Google Play, Apple App Store

Also, during the discussion, several prominent guests were worried about clones in the Google Play store and the American company isn't doing much in controlling them. It's a serious matter, as it will allow original app developers to lose out on business, and also the customer will be devoid of quality service.

Also, Sharma went on a rant on Google's latest billing policy and feared the US company has too much power and said small and upcoming app developers might lose out on revenue and will be hard to sustain their business for long due to excessive commission.

"We firmly believe that if app developers are charged a fee of 30% or more, the overall cost of their product & service will increase. This will in turn impact the price of the final product for the end-user as well, hampering the growth of the entire ecosystem and putting a roadblock in our country’s vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat. Developers spend a lot of money & resources to build their apps and then marketing them. Therefore, we have decided to not charge anything for listing their app on the Paytm Mini App Store. For payments, developers have a choice of Paytm Wallet, Paytm Payments Bank, UPI, net-banking and cards to their users. By opening up our platform, we wish to encourage developers of all kinds and backgrounds to work towards the benefit of our country," Sharma said.

However, Paytm levies charge a 2% charge on purchases made through credit cards.

It can be noted that the rising dissent against Google did not go unnoticed. The Mountain View-based company, earlier in the week, delayed the enforcement of Google Play Billing policy for Indian companies till March 31, 2022.

Must read | Google defers 30% in-app commission payment in India to March 2022

"The basic challenges for app developers in India have remained the same. You need to figure out what to build, how to build it- whether native or as a web application and finally, how to get it discovered. We have been working really hard to make our Mini App Store available to all Indian developers. Our country is at the cusp of a massive digital revolution and we aim to democratize building apps and publishing them for all of you. We want to encourage our country’s immensely talented developers to participate in our program and build innovative digital products," said Shreyas Srinivasan, Head, Paytm Mini Apps.

"Our newest offering lets app developers take care of all these problems, and just get down to what they do best- Create. Initial response from developers who have already used the new mini-app platform to create or upgrade their digital business, speaks for itself," Srinivasan added.

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