Paytm takes on Google, launches Mini App Store

More than 300 startups have joined the Paytm's Mini App Store in India

The tiff between Paytm and Google has gone a notch up with the latter announcing its own mini-app store in India.

Paytm on Monday (October 5) opened the Mini App store for Android phones and promises lucrative deals for making in-app purchases and will be much cheaper compared to Google's platform.

The company says Mini App Store was developed with built using HTML and javascript technologies. Its main intention is to help small developers and businesses to set up low-cost, quick-to-build mini-apps.

The company says it provides Paytm wallet, Paytm Payments Bank account, and UPI at zero charges and levies a 2% charge on purchases made through credit cards.

"This local India’s app store aims to drive the Atmanirbhar Bharat mission while keeping the digital consumer spends within India," the company said.

The Mini App Store is quite big and as per Paytm, there are more than 300 partner apps including Decathalon, Ola, Park+, Rapido, Netmeds, 1MG, Domino's Pizza, FreshMenu, NoBroker, and more.

"I am proud that we are today launching something that creates an opportunity for every Indian app developer. Paytm Mini App Store empowers our young Indian developers to leverage our reach and payments to build new innovative services. For Paytm users, it will be a seamless experience that doesn't require any separate download and enables them to use their preferred payment option," said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO - Paytm.

However, the Paytm Mini App Store is no real alternative to Google Play Store, as it offers a website-like interface within the app and this will help users do the transaction on a particular service provider such as Domino's Pizza via Paytm's server and the consumers can claim. Even Just Dial app offers a similar service. It is just that consumers can save a lot of space on their phones, as they don't need to install separate apps for every service.

Having said that, it is a good start and is a brave move by Paytm to take on Google. Now, it remains to be be seen if Paytm has any plans to bring a similar mini app store for the Apple iOS platform.

Recap of the bitter fight between Google and Paytm
Just a few days ago, Paytm and Google were involved in a bitter battle over regulations on app developers on Play Store. The former's digital wallet was taken down from the app repository and also blocked from functioning in millions of Android phones.

It was not just Paytm, even the Swiggy, Zomato, and others were served notice to remove certain in-app features.
Apparently, the Indian app-makers, in a bid to cash-in on the Indian Premier League Cricket tournament, introduced in-app gaming features aimed to drive traffic and eventually make monetary transactions.

However, it was deemed a violation and Google termed them akin to betting and gambling, and were asked to shut the activities.

Just a few days later, Google announced to more regulations and also revealed that it would take a 30% cut on all in-app transactions in form of a gate-keeping charge.

This further infuriated several start-ups, particularly in India. Last week, Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma and PhonePe head Sameer Nigam have been vocal against Google's latest measure, and called the latest Play store guidelines as 'unfair and harsh'.

Both the app leaders reportedly held talks of familiar minded start-up owners to form an association to nudge the government to help them and take on Google.

Within a few days, a report emerged the Indian government has assigned the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to create a secured App Store for Indian apps.

On Monday, Google has temporarily halted the 30% tax on Android apps in India till March 31, 2022.

"First and foremost, we want to reiterate that we are deeply committed to the success of the Indian ecosystem -- we do not succeed unless our partners succeed," Google said in blog post.

To understand the local needs and concerns, Google has announced to set up, listening sessions with leading Indian startups to understand their concerns more deeply. Also, it will host Policy Workshops to help clear any additional questions about our Play Store policies.

"We’re also extending the time for developers in India to integrate with the Play billing system, to ensure they have enough time to implement the UPI for the subscription payment option that will be made available on Google Play -- for all apps that are yet to launch, or that currently use an alternative payment system, we set a timeline of 31st March 2022," Google added.

Read more | Google defers 30% in-app commission payment in India to March 2022

For now, Paytm has tasted victory in the first battle, but its a long war and there are more battles to come.

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