Walmart-backed
digital payments platform
PhonePe is set to launch its
app store
for users on February 21. The
Indus Appstore
is expected to challenge the duopoly of
Apple
and
in the
app library ecosystem
.
According to a report by The Economic Times, the Indus Appstore is expected to take place in New Delhi. The report cited people in the know of the plan saying that government officials, startup founders as well as top executives are also likely to attend the launch event.
PhonePe’s Indus Appstore: More details
The company released the developer version of the platform on the Android-based app marketplace in September 2023.
At the time,
PhonePe
said that the developer platform would be free for developers for the first year. After which the company will charge a nominal annual fee from developers who access the platform.
The app store wants to differentiate itself with the likes of Google Play Store and Apple App Store by not charging developers any platform fee or commission for in-app payments. Developers will also be free to integrate any payment gateway of their choice within their apps.
Earlier, Indian developers have criticised Google and Apple for charging a 30% commission for in-app purchases. The platforms developed by the tech giants also restrict developers over the choice of payment processing systems.
As per Indus App Store's website, it will allow developers to employ video-led app discovery and run custom targeted ads in Indian languages to differentiate itself from global competitors.
Apart from English, it will also allow developers to list their apps in over 12 Indian languages.
How PhonePe is gaining from PayTm’s decline
Data sourced from industry executives by market intelligence platform AppTweak notes that the daily average downloads of Paytm's app on Google Play Store has declined to 1.4 lakh between Feb 1-7 from 2.4 lakh during the Jan 24-31 period.
Meanwhile, rival PhonePe's daily app downloads on the Play Store have jumped to 5.5 lakh from 4.4 lakh during the same period. With daily downloads during the first seven days of the month totalling 3.6 lakh, The BHIM app also found traction among users. Google Pay's app downloads also touched close to 2 lakh.
English (US) ·