Google has reportedly started removing the apps of 10 companies in India. The list includes some popular matrimony apps such as Bharat Matrimony. Matrimony.com apps
Bharat Matrimony
, Christian Matrimony, Muslim Matrimony and Jodii are said to have been deleted, the company founder Murugavel Janakiraman said.
Bharat Matrimony founder Janakiraman described the move as a “dark day of Indian Internet”.
What is the Google vs Indian app developers dispute about
The Google vs
Indian app developers dispute
is over service fee payments. The dispute centres on efforts by some Indian startups to stop Google from imposing a fee of 11% to 26% on in-app payments, after the country’s antitrust authorities (Competition Commission of India) ordered it to dismantle an earlier system of charging 15% to 30%. Google received a go-ahead to charge the fee or remove apps after two court decisions in January and February, one by the Supreme Court, not to give any relief to startups.
“On 9 February, the Supreme Court also refused to interfere with our right to do so. While some of the developers that were refused interim protection have started fairly participating in our business model and ecosystem, others choose to find ways to not do so,” according to the blog post.
Google Play
charges a service fee when developers sell in-app digital goods.
What Google said
In a blog post, earlier today, Google said that 10 Indian companies had chosen for an extended period of time not to pay for the “immense value they receive on Google Play”. It did not, however, identify the companies. “For years, no court or regulator has denied Google Play’s right to charge,” the company said on Friday, adding that the Supreme Court on Feb. 9 also “refused to interfere” with its right to do so.
Google says its fee supports investments in the app store and the Android mobile operating system, ensuring free distribution, and covering developer tools and analytic services. Just 3% of the more than 200,000 Indian developers who use the Google Play platform are required to pay any service fee, it added.
Google said while it seeks to work with developers to help them through policies and find feasible solutions, “allowing this small group of developers to get differential treatment from the vast majority of developers who are paying their fair share creates an uneven playing field across the ecosystem and puts all other apps and games at a competitive disadvantage”.
