IT ministers meet Google, startups on app suspensions
Aseries of meetings was held on Monday to address the vexed issue of Google suspending more than 200 apps from its Android Play Store platform.
Officials from Google as well as a delegation of startups whose apps have been banned on the Play Store met Union information technology (IT) minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to discuss the issue. Separately, the startup delegation also met the Union minister of state for IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, to express their concerns of “discriminatory pricing by Google” towards them.
Two senior government officials said on condition of anonymity that the Centre is currently evaluating and understanding the matter, but is unlikely to issue a notice imminently. “We are first looking to understand in detail the allegations of discriminatory pricing that the startups have spoken about— and we will look to take any adequate step in this regard only after careful evaluation,” one of the officials said.
Chandrasekhar said the government will “take it up with Google for a sustainable and long-term solution” to “create an ecosystem that will catalyse growth for startups.”
On this note, Snehil Khanor, founder and chief executive of homegrown dating platform TrulyMadly, said: “Google does not levy a similar fee to the likes of Amazon or Uber, but is levying a steep fee towards a small number of apps on their platform that are dependent on them. This is a highly discriminatory pricing model, and the same has heavily affected our business model.”
While Google has restored most of the apps on the Play Store that were suspended for non-payment of its service fee on Friday, startup founders allege that the restored apps do not have a way to accept payments from users for subscription services or one-time purchases.
Google charges apps a service fee of 11-30% depending on the services they sell through their platforms. Those that sell “real world” services, such as e-commerce or ride hailing, are exempted from the fee. Instead, Google charges the fee to only those that offer digital services, which the startups have claimed is discriminatory.
No solution yet with Indian companies accusing the US giant of abusing its dominant position