Walmart-owned PhonePe launched the much-anticipated Indus Appstore, a homegrown Android app store designed as a challenger to Google Play Store, to consumers in India, the world’s second-largest smartphone market, as per a Moneycontrol report.
The launch comes about four months after the digital payments firm opened up its app marketplace to Android developers, inviting them to publish their app on the platform, as reported by Moneycontrol.
With the Indus Appstore, the company is seeking to capitalise on India’s booming app economy. Indians spent about 1.19 trillion hours on mobile apps in 2023, up from 954 billion hours in 2021, as per app intelligence firm data.ai. The country is also the world’s largest market in terms of app downloads.
The launch also comes amid an ongoing standoff between Google and some of the country’s top startups and internet firms over the former’s Play Store policies and commission fees.
The Indus Appstore app is currently available on the company’s website, which consumers can download and manually install the app on their smartphones. It will also offer a mobile number-based login system to attract consumers without email accounts.
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PhonePe has struck partnerships with OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) such as Nokia and Lava to integrate the app store into their devices as of November 2023.
Striking partnerships with more OEMs will be key for Indus App Store to drive adoption among consumers due to the friction involved in consumers manually sideloading apps on their smartphones.
Developer platform launch
For Android developers, Indus Appstore allows them to list their apps in 12 Indian languages apart from English, as well as upload media and videos to their app listings in these languages.
More importantly, the app marketplace will charge a zero percent fee on in-app purchases compared to the 15-30 percent fee levied by Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The company claims that it has added 2 lakh mobile apps and games across 45 categories.
In September, PhonePe said that the app listings on the platform would be free for the first year, following which a nominal annual fee would be charged. Developers will also be able to integrate any payment gateway of their choice on the platform, PhonePe co-founder Sameer Nigam said at the time.
Indus Appstore claims to offer 24×7 dedicated India-based support via email or chatbot with “assured assistance and quick resolution of queries,” in a bid to address a common pain point that developers have often faced with Google and Apple. The platform will also offer dedicated account managers.
This launch comes at a time when Google is facing regulatory scrutiny over the business practices of its app marketplaces Google Play in India and several other markets.
In October 2022, the country’s antitrust watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) had directed the tech giant to modify its conduct towards smartphone makers and app developers through a range of corrective measures besides imposing a penalty through two separate orders.
As part of these measures, CCI had directed Google to allow third-party app stores on Google Play, however, The National Company Law Appellate (NCLAT) subsequently set aside this direction in March 2023.
In recent years, Google has faced intense backlash from Indian developers over its app policies, particularly after the search giant’s announcement in October 2020 that it will begin enforcing a mandatory integration of its Play billing system across the world. Several app developers have mentioned that these commission fees are “extremely high” and “unfair”.
Since then, Google has taken several steps to modify its policies including lowering its commission fee and introducing third-party billing for in-app purchases. The tech giant claims these changes comply with the CCI’s order, but many local app developers disagree and have challenged it in court.
Indus OS acquisition
That said, the launch of Indus Appstore has been on the cards for a while. In July 2022, PhonePe acquired an indigenous Android content and app discovery platform Indus OS after a long protracted legal battle.
In April 2023, PhonePe co-founder Sameer Nigam had first confirmed plans to build an app store in an interview with Moneycontrol.
Apart from the annual fees, Indus Appstore will likely monetise its offering through advertising and value-added services for developers. App marketers can get “boosted visibility” on search, promote their apps on dedicated video slots and run custom targeted ad campaigns. according to the website. One can also create rich media ads in Indian languages and avail translation services from experts, likely to enable developers to list apps in various Indian languages.
For developers, Indus Appstore will offer the ability to roll out newer app versions to relevant user cohorts, test features with a select audience and have better control over their app releases. It will also offer real-time tracking of app installs and uninstalls, exploring competitor trends and a “transparent rating system”.
It’s worth noting that PhonePe already offers a ‘Switch’ platform on its eponymous payments app, that offers users an app-like experience across a range of categories including food, grocery, shopping, travel, and healthcare among others.
PhonePe rival Paytm also offers a similar mini app store that provides users an app-like experience through a collection of custom-built mobile websites.
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