On February 21, PhonePe, backed by Walmart, announced the launch of ‘Indus Appstore’ for Android smartphone users. According to information provided by PhonePe, the Indus Appstore will offer approximately 400,000 apps in 12 Indian languages, available for search and download.
Promoting Fair Competition and Challenging Google’s Monopoly
PhonePe Aims for Healthy Competition: With the launch of Indus Appstore, PhonePe’s CEO and Founder, Sameer Nigam, stated that it marks the beginning of providing healthy competition in the mobile app market. He expressed that it will contribute to developing a robust Indian digital system and a more democratic system.
PhonePe’s Developer Invite in September 2023: PhonePe had invited developers to list their apps on its platform in September 2023. The introduction of the Indus Appstore provides an alternative to Android app distribution, challenging Google’s monopoly in this space.
No Charges for App Listing for the First Year: According to available information, developers can list their apps on the Indus Developer Platform for free for the first year. This means there will be no charges for any kind of app listing for the initial year. However, the company has not disclosed the charges for developers from the second year onwards.
India Tops the Global App Download Market: India holds the title of the world’s largest app download market, as per data released by app intelligence firm data.ai. Mobile app usage in India reached nearly 1.19 trillion hours in 2023, surpassing the 954 billion hours recorded in 2021.