Want To Get Away From Google And Apple, India To Build Its Own Application Store

Application store illustration (Image Credit: Rahul Chakraborty / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - India doesn't seem to want to be left behind by the giants of Silicon Valley, the United States (US). Reportedly, the country plans to create application stores such as the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

This is not just a discourse, as the statement refers to a request from technology entrepreneurs to launch an Indian digital app store. Not only that, the government is also responding to growing protests against the dominance of US technology giants Google and Apple in the digital services market of the Bollywood film's home country.

The request was also prompted by Google's announcement that it will soon impose a 30 percent commission on in-app purchases.

Quoting Reuters, Friday, October 2, India already has an application store for government-centered applications. According to one Indian official, this existing app store could be upgraded to start.

It is known, the application store was developed by the Center for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), which accommodates such as the Umang e-governance application, the Aarogya Setu health application and the DigiLocker storage application. Apart from that, application developers are also required to make one that is superior to popular offerings such as that of the Google Play Store.

Considering the issue, Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a post on Twitter that he was pleased to receive important advice from Indian app developers on how to drive the ecosystem.

"Encouraging Indian application developers is essential to create the #AatmanirbharBharat application ecosystem," tweeted Prasad.

One Indian official who asked not to be named confirmed to ET News, "Building an app store is like building a shopping mall and the government can facilitate very well. For native app stores to succeed in overtaking Google and Apple's dominance, it has to be as good and strong."

Global experts are of the view that India is well positioned to break the dominance of the global technology giant in its digital application ecosystem.

“The (digital) industry doesn't need government assistance in this, they (developers and entrepreneurs) can crowdsource and maintain a minimum cost of 2 percent to run the platform. Nobody needs to pay 30 percent to Apple and Google, "said an American entrepreneur and technology academic, Vivek Wadhwa.

"If that (local app store) is scaled up globally after its initial success in India, developers around the world will be happy to be on an alternative platform where they don't have to pay a hefty 30 percent," he added.