Google continues to battle app developers in India over its Play Store fees and this week, the company has decided enough is enough. Google has released a strongly-worded post, wherein it has talked about 10 companies not complying with its policies which means, not paying Google its Play Store fees.
Latest development in this story on Friday has seen Google remove apps like Quack Quack, Altt, Aha and Shaadi.com from the Play Store in the country. Info Edge had claimed that it has paid all the dues to Google, but things took a wild turn as apps like Naukri.com and 99acres from the company were also removed on Friday evening. Other apps on Google’s hitlist were Kuku FM, and Truly Madly among others.
Google has faced multiple antitrust cases in the Indian Court over the years but a recent order was dismissed, which means the company is now ready to pull the trigger and enforce strict action on these unnamed companies.
Google has always pointed out that its Play Store policies and fees are competitive but its problem with these 10 companies is that they are paying to other app stores but not the Play Store. For an extended period of time, 10 companies, including many well-established ones, have chosen not to pay for the immense value they receive on Google Play by securing interim protections from court,” Google said in this blog post.
Google has tweaked its fees which was between 15 to 30 percent and made it 11 to 26 percent to apps that have the in-app purchase options in India. It seems these 10 unnamed companies are not even paying that part of their deal, which has irked Google into coming out with a public note on the whole matter. Google’s use of the term to enforce strict action, the company says, can include removal of the non-compliant apps from the Google Play Store.
These apps could then have to resort moving to other app stores like Indus and Aptoid or host the link to download their respective apps from their website, which is a definite point of friction for the consumers and also the companies who have to now share this message with the people who are interested in using their apps.
Google and Apple continue to face questions about their policies that border on monopolistic in nature for different platforms and the new saga suggests the story will continue as the developers look to get the best deal for their business, while Google feels the need to safeguard its processes from a miniscule share of its developer community.
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