Paytm Stands Tall; Announces INR 10 Cr Fund For Mini App Developers The latest development has been welcomed by the Indian startup ecosystem, which has been up in arms about Google's Play Store policies
By Debarghya Sil •
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After the announcement of Mini App store to fight against the monopoly orchestrated by Google in its Play Store, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Thursday announced INR 10 crore investment fund for mini app developers at a virtual conference.
The developer conference also had Vishal Gondal, founder and chief operating officer, GOQUii, Anand Lunia, general partner at India Quotient, Rajesh Swahney of GSF Accelerator and Murugavel Janakiraman of Matrinomy.com as speakers. Around 5,000 developers registered for the virtual conference.
The latest development has been by and large welcomed by the Indian startup ecosystem, which has been up in arms about Google's Play Store policies.
However, after facing backlash, Google has decided to extend its deadline for Indian app developers to comply with its play billing system to April 2022 from the original date of September 2021.
The Fallout
The move to support indigenuous app developers has come days after Paytm was taken down by Google from its Play Store for violating the company's gambling policy. Within a few hours of the move, Google had restored the Paytm app on the Play Store, but Vijay Shekhar Sharma, has since then gone on record multiple times expressing his discontent with Google's high-handed behavior of abusing its monopoly over the Indian internet ecosystem.
Many other prominent Indian entrepreneurs, including arch-rival PhonePe's founder Sameer Nigam, have also come out in support of Paytm's fight against Google.
Following this Paytm launched its own Mini App Store. Mini apps are a custom-built mobile website that gives users app-like experience without having to download them.The payment unicorn is providing listing and distribution of these mini-apps within its app for free.
Later, Vijay Shekhar Sharma's Paytm First Games (PFG) also announced a fund worth INR 10 crore for indigenous game developers and studios. In a press statement, the company said that PFG will provide a launchpad to homegrown game developers and design studios focused on Indian culture and folk tales
