New Delhi: Dozens of India’s technology startups, chafing at Google’s local dominance of key apps, are banding together to consider ways to challenge the US tech giant. They are planning to lodge complaints with the Central government and courts according to the sources in these startups. Google in the past has worked closely with India’s booming startup sector. It is also is ramping up its investments. However, Google has recently angered these technology startups with what they say are unfair practices.
Setting the stage for a potential showdown, entrepreneurs held two video conferences this week to strategise. “It’s definitely going to be a bitter fight,” said Dinesh Agarwal, CEO of e-commerce firm IndiaMART. “Google will lose this battle. It’s just a matter of time,” he added.
Agarwal informed that executives have discussed forming a new startup association. The target will be to lodge protests with the Indian government and courts against the Silicon Valley company.
Nearly 99 per cent of the smartphones of India’s half a billion users run on Google’s Android mobile operating system. Most Indian startups are of the opinion that Google exerts excessive control over the types of apps. It is an allegation that Google however, denies.
The uproar began last month when Google removed popular payments app Paytm from its Play Store, citing policy violations. This led to a sharp rebuke from the Indian firm’s founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma. However, the Paytm app returned to the Google platform a few hours later, after it implemented certain changes.
In a video call, Sharma called Google the ‘big daddy’ that controls the ‘oxygen supply of (app) distribution’ on Android phones. He has urged approximately 50 executives on the call to join hands to ‘stop this tsunami’. “If we together don’t do anything, then history will not be kind to us. We have to control our digital destiny,” Sharma said.
One idea raised was to launch a local rival to Google’s app store. However, Sharma said this would not be immediately effective given Google’s dominance, one source said.
To get his views, ‘Reuters’ contacted Sharma and Paytm, which is backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp 9984.T. However, did not respond to requests for comment.
Google declined to comment. It has previously said its policies aim to protect Android users. Hence it applies and enforces the rules consistently on developers.
This week the US-based company angered some Indian startups. It decided to enforce a 30% commission it charges on payments made within apps on the Android store.
Two dozen executives of various startups were on a call Friday where many slammed that decision. They discussed filing antitrust complaints and approaching Google’s India head for discussions, said two sources with direct knowledge of the call.
Participants included sports technology firm ‘Dream Sports’, backed by US hedge fund ‘Tiger Global’. There were also participants from social media company ‘ShareChat’ and digital payments firm ‘PhonePe’, the sources said.
Google already faces an antitrust case related to its payments app in India. The company has said it complies with all laws.
These spats strain Google’s strong ties to Indian startups. It has invested in some and helped hundreds with product development. In July, its Indian-born CEO Sundar Pichai committed $10 billion in new investments over five to seven years.