Pressure mounts on Google to soften its stance in India
Live MintTechnology giant Google is being prompted to soften its stance in India after pushback from startup founders in the country over its policies. There are instances such as fantasy sports platform Dream11 getting 100 million users without listing on Google Play Store, the founders said. Startups are also demanding fair play as Google, which is used by 95% of Indian digital consumers, controls the entire tech stack right from an operating system to app-distribution through its Play Store. “One could surmise that the discontentment among Indian apps regarding Google Play’s commission demands, coupled with a public policy and regulatory shift favouring an indigenous app store may have played a role in Google Play’s flexibility,” said Akash Karmakar, partner, Law Offices of Panag and Babu. Today, startups are at the mercy of Google, where they can randomly remove any app from the Play Store,” said Murugavel Janakiraman, founder and CEO of Matrimony.com Ltd. Snehil Khanor, co-founder and CEO, TrulyMadly.com said Facebook and Google are taking India’s capital away by colonization of digital economy.