Apps delisting: Govt assures startups of level playing field – Technology News

The government on Monday held multiple meetings with Google and startups that have been delisted from the tech major’s Play Store, but no solution seems to be on the horizon with Indian companies accusing the US giant of abusing its dominant position.

In separate meetings with communications and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and minister of state for IT and electronics Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the troubled startups raised their concerns and sought support from the government.

The ministers assured the startups that the government will work on a long-term sustainable solution to the issue.

The meeting was attended by executives of companies such as Bharat Matrimony, Stage, Truly Madly, Kuku FM, InfoEdge, Aha, among others. A separate meeting was held with the representatives of Google.

“Today, startups presented their concerns regarding a few policies of Google. Assured them that MeitY will take it up with Google for a sustainable and long-term solution,” Chandrasekhar said in a post on X.

The startups raised the issue of Google charging discriminatory service fees from about 6,000-7,000 homegrown companies out of 200,000 developers in India. They said that Google is charging discriminatory fees from those providing digital services and not from others such as Ola, Uber, etc. The startups also pointed out that Google charges arbitrary revenue share, without giving any justification of the cost associated to run that operation. According to them, Google was also violating the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act.

“Google has access to every single transaction of every single user and a lot of other data with it that goes to them along with it. So they will know all about our customers who are paying, who are not paying, etc,” said Vinay Singhal, founder and CEO of STAGE, in a press briefing by Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF).

They demanded that the government direct Google to restore the status quo, as on Friday. Out of over 200 apps, some apps re-applied as consumption-only apps for which their consumers won’t be able to purchase from within the apps.

“ADIF acknowledges the Government of India’s consistent efforts to promote a fair and equitable environment for startups and is hopeful that a positive resolution of the issue will be arrived at, at the earliest,” said Prateek Jain, associate director at ADIF.

The startups also sent a letter to the Competition Commission of India urging that it directs Google to reinstate the apps it removed for policy violations.

“CCI order clearly stated that Google cannot restrict app developers for using third party billing, and they cannot take any adverse measures against those for using third-party billing. On top of that, they cannot charge any arbitrary amount,” said Snehil Khanor, founder and CEO of Truly Madly.

Companies such as STAGE, Kuku FM, Truly Madly, said that they have not been able to acquire any new customers from the date their apps were taken down.

Lal Chand Bisu, co-founder and CEO at Kuku FM said, “we do around 4 million apps download a month but for the last three-four days it is zero”.

As one of the long term solutions, the startups urged the government to have a Bharat Play Store where every app can be listed.