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Developers, Google hold separate meetings with govt amid delisting of apps
Google on Friday delisted over 250 apps from 10 Indian app developers from its Play Store for not complying with its payment policy
A clutch of Indian app developers met the government to voice their complaints about Google, which removed apps by 10 developers from its Play Store, but later put many of them back after they complied with its payments policy.
The developers met with IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, deputy IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and IT secretary S Krishnan in three separate meetings on Monday, four people aware of the meetings said. A Google representative met Vaishnaw before his meeting with the developers.
Google on Friday delisted over 250 apps from 10 Indian app developers from its Play Store for not complying with its payment policy, a policy the developers have challenged in Madras High Court and Supreme Court. By Monday evening, some of the apps by nine developers were relisted on the Play Store. No apps by one developer — Cold Brew Tech (FRND) — were brought back until Monday evening.
The ministers and government officials have not committed to any particular course of action, the people said.
Google told Vaishnaw how the tech giant imposes a service fee on app developers who sell in-app digital goods and services to invest in safeguards for users on the Play Store ecosystem, the people said. In its blog post on Friday, the company had said that only 3% of the 200,000 Play Store developers in India sell digital goods or services and fewer than 60 developers were subjected to a service fee greater than 15% of their annual revenue. The company also told Vaishnaw it delisted the apps from 10 Indian developers because they did not comply with its payments policy for more than three years, and that it was a contractual issue.
The developers, accompanied by representatives from lobby groups Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), and Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), told the ministers about the problems with getting delisted, the people said. Both ministers, according to two app developers, said the top priority was to get the apps relisted and to maintain the status as it was before the delisting. The government would then consider what can be done on a medium- to long-term basis, the ministers said.
“Under the leadership of PM @narendramodi ji, the Govt will continue will continue to work towards a level playing field for big and small firms alike while creating an ecosystem that will catalyze growth from startups. Today, starts presented their concerns regarding a few policies of @google. Assured them that @GoI_MeitY will take it up with Google for a sustainable and long-term solution,” Chandrasekhar posted on X (previously Twitter) on March 4 after his meeting with the developers.
Neither minister mentioned what specific actions the government could take, the people said. On Saturday, when HT asked Vaishnaw if the app developers had to abide by Google’s terms to be re-listed, he said he was not aware of it. “We are not privy to the internal, commercial discussions between companies,” he had said.
IT secretary Krishnan, too, heard the developers and told them the ministry would do whatever was possible, the developers said, declining to be named.
Executives from affected companies like Matrimony.com (Bharat Matrimony), Info Edge (Naukri.com), People Interactive (Shaadi.com), QuackQuack and Truly Madly attended the meetings. Companies that are were not delisted by Google but complied with its payment policy by opting for consumption only model (doing away with in-app payments) such as MagicBricks, Hoichoi and ShareChat also attended at least one of these meetings.
