Indian Government a competitor to the Play Store?

[Yatharth Shah]

Summary

According to a large Indian media Publication, there are rumors that the Government is planning to launch it's own app store as alternative to Google and Apple's app stores. According to the news report, the Ministry of 

Electronics and Information technology's centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) will be responsible for developing it.

 

Also rumored: It will not take the 30% cut for app hosting.

Quotes

Quote

In a bid to make India Aatmanirbhar (Self-reliant), the Modi government is reportedly planning to launch its own app store as an alternative to Google and Apple's app store. ET Now learnt from sources that the government has decided that the country needs an alternative to Apple and Google's app store.

 

My thoughts

 India has entered the internet market later than many countries, and is now finding a way to centralize it, and get away from antitrust by taking matters in their own hand. Also, the Govt. has seen the potential for Ai and other emerging fields, and wants to serve as the incubator for such projects, and is thus trying to make it's own market free of US tech giants hands. Also, this means they have more control over the data of their citizens.

 

Sources

 https://beebom.com/india-may-soon-launch-atmanirbhar-app-store/

https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/industry/article/modi-govt-planning-to-launch-its-own-app-store-as-an-alternative-to-google-apples-app-stores/660806

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/india-plans-launch-of-own-app-store-as-alternative-to-google-apple-et-now/articleshow/78424421.cms

Edited October 1, 2020 by Yatharth Shah

[RejZoR]

Maybe they can have one for Android, but there is zero chance it'll happen for Apple. It's their closed and controlled ecosystem. No one but them has any say at how it's operated and I don't think India has the leverage to extort their way with Apple...

[Yatharth Shah]

3 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Maybe they can have one for Android, but there is zero chance it'll happen for Apple. It's their closed and controlled ecosystem. No one but them has any say at how it's operated and I don't think India has the leverage to extort their way with Apple...

Don't feel comfortable quoting this, but what happened in China?

[NotTheFirstDaniel]

10 minutes ago, Yatharth Shah said:

Don't feel comfortable quoting this, but what happened in China?

As far as I know the App Store is available in China, but like all other things China, they have their finger so far up Apple. They can tell Apple to take down apps/games they don't like.

[Yatharth Shah]

1 minute ago, NotTheFirstDaniel said:

As far as I know the App Store is available in China, but like all other things China, they have their finger so far up Apple. They can tell Apple to take down apps/games they don't like.

This is just taking matters in your own hand. Not too far off.

[NotTheFirstDaniel]

Yeah I don't see Apple agreeing to this ever. If they can't find a loophole they might just stop selling phones in India, I mean India only represents a small percentage in all the units Apple sells.

[Senzelian]

I'm sure the government will tell those losers to close their little app store.
The government being Apple and Google in this case.

[Yatharth Shah]

3 minutes ago, NotTheFirstDaniel said:

Yeah I don't see Apple agreeing to this ever. If they can't find a loophole they might just stop selling phones in India, I mean India only represents a small percentage in all the units Apple sells.

True, but I think the major one is Google's play store. There are some apps with malware. Also, ya, Apple may stop selling there, but in order to get out of China, they have invested in India, and the Apple online store just opened a week back.

[StDragon]

48 minutes ago, Yatharth Shah said:

Don't feel comfortable quoting this, but what happened in China?

I'll take 'no trust' for $100, Alex.

[Bombastinator]

I can’t think of a government that would do a particularly good job of that and the Indian government isn’t high on the list of governments for that sort of thing.  Somewhere below Italy.  German government might be at the top.  Maybe New Zealand.  I know little of the new zeland government though. 

[Shreyas1]

For everyone saying that Apple will just not sell to India, keep in mind that India is a pretty big potential market for Apple as well. I would assume that Apple would want to expand into India sometime into the future/are currently trying to expand into India (as evidenced by the launch of the new estore for India, albeit with stupidly high prices), so this may give India a bit more leverage than what you would assume based on only the current volume of sales

[Justaphysicsnerd]

10 hours ago, Yatharth Shah said:

Summary

According to a large Indian media Publication, there are rumors that the Government is planning to launch it's own app store as alternative to Google and Apple's app stores. According to the news report, the Ministry of 

Electronics and Information technology's centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) will be responsible for developing it.

 

Also rumored: It will not take the 30% cut for app hosting.

Quotes

 

My thoughts

 India has entered the internet market later than many countries, and is now finding a way to centralize it, and get away from antitrust by taking matters in their own hand. Also, the Govt. has seen the potential for Ai and other emerging fields, and wants to serve as the incubator for such projects, and is thus trying to make it's own market free of US tech giants hands. Also, this means they have more control over the data of their citizens.

 

Sources

 https://beebom.com/india-may-soon-launch-atmanirbhar-app-store/

https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/industry/article/modi-govt-planning-to-launch-its-own-app-store-as-an-alternative-to-google-apples-app-stores/660806

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/india-plans-launch-of-own-app-store-as-alternative-to-google-apple-et-now/articleshow/78424421.cms

Well, As a fellow Indian I think it is more like a political move to garner support for their party, just like D1g1t4L 1ND14 . They won't do anything and even if they do something it will have some security flaws or it will be filled with apps that just want to collect users' private data. As the government has already organized an app building competition for alternative to apps from other countries, I think they will hand out the work to some 3rd party company.

It is just a dream of the government, that will never come true, unless they build a complete system alternative to android. Like make their own android distro with all their apps, which again the OEMs like Samsung (BTW, If you are not an Indian let me tell ya,  most Indians love samsung), Motorola, Nokia etc. may or may not use. Remember its a free country the government can't force anyone to use their own stuff, that would be like China, where it seems to be a democracy but it is not.

 

 

PS : If the government really wants to do something, they should first look into improving their internet and digital privacy laws. There are currently no proper laws regarding that in our country.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Justaphysicsnerd

[Spindel]

Isn't a government launching a thing of the kind anticompetitive behavior?

[Justaphysicsnerd]

1 hour ago, Shreyas1 said:

potential market

yep that phrase right there. They just might not since their RAM upgrades cost around 30-40k on their own store. Apple products will remain a luxury in India until the government reduces import taxes and sales tax.

 

 

PS : Apple products will still remain a luxury even after the taxes are reduced, since seriously you think Apple don't want your money ? LOL

[Justaphysicsnerd]

1 minute ago, Spindel said:

Isn't a government launching a thing of the kind anticompetitive behavior?

Yep, it can be if the government bans all other app stores, which they can't on android. As you can use the F-Droid store which is completely open source or sideload apks. But don't worry the 1nd14n government's app store will never take off. As they will most likely hand the work to a local company called App Baazar which makes the App Store that comes pre-loaded on samsung phones

[Spindel]

13 minutes ago, Justaphysicsnerd said:

Yep, it can be if the government bans all other app stores, which they can't on android. As you can use the F-Droid store which is completely open source or sideload apks. But don't worry the 1nd14n government's app store will never take off. As they will most likely hand the work to a local company called App Baazar which makes the App Store that comes pre-loaded on samsung phones

But the difference between a government (more so if you factor in a country of Indias size) is that it virtually can't go bankrupt and thus can put almost infinite resources into the project without any thoughts if ROI.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Knowing the Indian Government... are they going to place duties on apps developed outside of India on their competitor store?  

[williamcll]

Cool but can developers get full payment for every app purchases? Might as well put those tax money on some technology.

[Justaphysicsnerd]

On 10/2/2020 at 10:40 AM, Spindel said:

But the difference between a government (more so if you factor in a country of Indias size) is that it virtually can't go bankrupt and thus can put almost infinite resources into the project without any thoughts if ROI.

Yeah seriously ? The government isn't going to focus on that sorta thing right now. Right now they are pouring money into the military and into their own pockets.

[Justaphysicsnerd]

7 hours ago, williamcll said:

Cool but can developers get full payment for every app purchases? Might as well put those tax money on some technology.

Word on the street is that if they do something like this supposed app store then there will be no 30% cut. But, I don't think that they will do it properly, they couldn't even make a proper contact tracing app, without loopholes.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

if anyone has tried india's own GPS, you know how awful it is, this won't be any better

[Gamer Schnitzel]

India is a rapidly growing economy and has absurd levels of population. Apple is not so stupid to just stop selling their product in India especially considering half the people in silicone valley are Indians.

[Yatharth Shah]

https://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/paytm-to-open-mini-app-store-for-indian-developers/article32768519.ece

 

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/centre-open-to-launching-an-indian-app-store/articleshow/78438620.cms

 

 

In the above 2 sources, many good points have been made, and this measure may be to have less dependence on g-services and apis and to prevent monopoly, as android has 98% market share in India. Also, this if scaled, this could be a competitor, to App stores, and offering services at 2% charges instead of 30%.

[Yatharth Shah]

10 hours ago, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

if anyone has tried india's own GPS, you know how awful it is, this won't be any better

Dude, it is in testing phase, and has not been launched. Also, not open for citizens, as per my knowledge.

[LAwLz]

With the Indian government banning apps left and right I would not be surprised if this was just another plan for them to gain more control over their citizens.

Why have to deal with middle-men like Google and Apple when they can just own the marketplace and have things banned by themselves?