ⓘ Featured image: A file-photo of Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder & CEO of Paytm; Credits: Bloomberg
- Paytm Mini App Store might be the answer to Google’s dominance in the smartphone space
- The launch of Paytm Mini App Store goes in line with the India government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat agenda
India’s fintech unicorn Paytm, on Monday, 5 October 2020, announced the launch of its ‘Android Mini App Store‘ to help Indian developers market their apps. The launch of the Android mini-app store is seemingly a direct take of Paytm on Google – considering the last month tussle between Paytm and Google when Google removed Paytm app from Android Play Store claiming that Paytm is allowing gambling-related payments through its digital payments app.
Another cornerstone reason behind this launch by Paytm could be Google’s new policy dated 28 September 2020, under which Google announced that it will take a 30 per cent cut from purchases users make inside an app listed on the Google Play Store. On top of that, a report by Reuters, dated 3 October 2020 is already speaking about Paytm and many other Indian startups weaving plans to outrun Google’s dominance in the smartphone space.
Launching the Android Mini App Store, Paytm on its official blog, said,
“We are excited to announce the launch of our Android Mini App Store to support Indian developers to take their innovative products to the masses. Mini apps are a custom-built mobile website that gives users app-like experience without having to download them, which would greatly benefit millions of citizens to save their limited data and phone memory.”
Backing the launch with the governments agenda of Atmanirbhar Bharat (Independent India), the company said,
“We believe that through this initiative India would be able to build a sustainable and thriving local technology ecosystem that resonates with the true spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat. Growing technology companies will get the opportunity to rely on India’s Paytm to contribute towards the overall growth of the Indian economy and create employment.”
A statement included in the blog post from Vijay Shekhar Sharma a.k.a VSS, Founder & CEO of Paytm, says,
“I am proud that we are today launching something that creates an opportunity for every Indian app developer. Paytm Mini App Store empowers our young Indian developers to leverage our reach and payments to build new innovative services. For Paytm users, it will be a seamless experience that doesn’t require any separate download and enables them to use their preferred payment option.”
According to Paytm, the Mini App Store offers a direct access to discover, browse, and pay without downloading or installing separate apps, which is why over 300 app-based service providers such as Decathalon, Ola, Park+, Rapido, Netmeds, 1MG, Domino’s Pizza, FreshMenu, NoBroker and more have joined the program already.
The Mini App Store comes with a developer dashboard for analytics, payments collection along with various marketing tools to engage with the users. This app store has been running in beta with select users and witnessed over 12 million visits in the month of September.
Enlisting the process of applying to Paytm’s Android App Mini Store, the company said that startups and tech companies can reach out at [email protected].
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