New Delhi: The outage of Google services poses a significant setback for developers, impacting their business operations during the downtime. Given Google’s overwhelming dominance in the Indian market, with over 90% of phones operating on its Android platform, developers are grappling with potential financial and operational challenges.
Google, on Friday, removed more than a dozen popular Indian apps from its Play Store, citing non-compliance with its billing policies. Some of the affected apps include the job platform Naukri, matrimony services Shaadi and Bharat Matrimony, audio storytelling platforms like Kuku FM, Alt Balaji’s Altt, the dating platform TrulyMadly, and the real estate manager 99acres.
This signals a significant intensification in the deteriorating relationship between the Internet giant and certain Indian app developers who have resisted its policy of imposing an 11-26 per cent commission on in-app payments. However, rulings by the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court earlier this year effectively granted Google the authority to impose the fee or take down the apps. Developers now confront a substantial setback to their businesses during the time they are offline, considering Google’s dominant position in the Indian market, with over 90 per cent of phones operating on its Android platform.
Bharat Matrimony‘s founder, Murugavel Janakiraman, referred to it as a “dark day” for the country’s startup ecosystem, while the founder of KukuFM labeled Google as the “most evil company in the world.” Google responded in a blog post on Friday, stating that, “for an extended period of time, 10 companies, including many well-established ones, have chosen to not pay for the immense value they receive on Google Play by securing interim protections from court. These developers comply with payment policies of other app stores.” The delisting of applications began shortly after this statement.
Officially, the company has not named the apps it has taken down from Google Play. However, several of them were unavailable on the platform at the time of publication. According to a source familiar with internal discussions at Google, after the company’s blog post was published on Friday, its review team examined the applications and found them to be non-compliant with its billing policy, leading to their removal from the Play Store.
The source also clarified the perceived non-compliance by these apps according to Google – they have not implemented payment systems capable of segregating the commission Google charges per in-app payment in real time. It is understood that Google and the developers of the apps on its Play Store typically follow a monthly cycle of payment reconciliation.
Sanjeev Bikhchandani of InfoEdge, the owner of Naukri and 99Acres, mentioned in a TV interview: “The notice [from Google] does not say they were being delisted. It says if you are non-compliant, then you will be delisted. We have been compliant since February 9, the date the Supreme Court order came out. There are no pending invoices of Google with us. All have been paid in a timely manner.”
The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), a lobby group, “advised” Google not to remove any apps from Google Play. Although not mentioning specific apps, the industry lobby confirmed that at least four of its members had received delisting notices from Google. “The affected members of IAMAI are of the view that a substantive hearing of the case is pending before the Supreme Court of India, and Google should not take any coercive action during the pendency of the case,” it added.