PhonePe has announced the inauguration of their Indus Appstore at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi for users. PhonePe‘s Indus Appstore aims to foster a more competitive and localised mobile app store economy in India, which already has the world’s largest mobile app download market. The ceremony was attended by a huge number of startup founders and tech industry professionals, demonstrating the importance of this launch to India’s expanding digital economy.
Indus Appstore allows Indian users to download over 2 lakh mobile apps and games from 45 categories. Users would be able to find these apps easily in 12 Indian languages, providing 95% of Indians’ linguistic choices. The app store also has a fresh new short-video discovery function to make new app discovery more appealing to consumers.
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In a world first, Indus AppStore allows app and game creators to use any third-party payment gateway for in-app billing, with no commission paid if they use an external payment gateway. Indus will eventually provide its own in-app pricing and catalogue systems, but these will be entirely optional for app developers. In addition, to encourage developer registrations, Indus is offering developers a one-year free listing.
The timing of Indus Appstore’s launch is especially relevant given the recent demand from the Indian startup ecosystem for more free market competition in the mobile app store area.
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Sameer Nigam, CEO and Founder PhonePe added, “Indus Appstore challenges the status quo, ushering in an era of more healthy competition in the mobile app marketplace, which in turn should help create a more democratic and vibrant Indian digital ecosystem. Indus Appstore embodies our commitment to building a truly inclusive digital ecosystem where every Indian user feels at home.”
