ADIF roundup: Our stance on Google reducing Play Store fee, celebrating alliance members, and more

Our work and activities and the latest highlights from the Indian startup ecosystem.

Nov 3, 2021

Our stand on Amazon’s playbook of copying, rigging and killing Indian brands. A recent Reuters investigation brought to light Amazon’s blatant disregard for competition laws, intellectual property rights and disgraceful predatory practices. The manner in which the e-commerce giant has targeted the Indian market and leading brands in the country is highly deplorable and has brought into question the credibility of the company as a good faith operator in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Read our full statement here.

What we had to say about Google reducing the Play Store fee. The big tech giant recently announced that it is lowering its app store fees for all subscription-based services to 15% from the existing 30% from January 1, 2022.

ADIF believes that this move is a deflect and distract tactic, and does nothing to address the issues and challenges of scores of developers who stand to be affected by the earlier announcement by Google of forced adoption of their billing system by March 2022.

ADIF @adif_India

.@sijokuruvilla, the Executive Director of @adif_India, breaks down how and why #Google's new payment policy will affect a majority of #appdevelopers.

Read our full statement here.

Apple too announced a change in its AppStore policy. Soon after Google’s change in policy, Apple announced that it would permit developers to communicate with their customers about other payment methods available outside their app. This change is in line with a recent US court hearing.

ADIF is of the view that the development comes as an additional strain on Google’s dogged efforts towards implementing their stated policy of enforcing their own in-app billing system.

Sijo Kuruvilla @sijokuruvilla

The recent announcement by @Apple comes as a major victory in reigning in monopoly practices in the app economy. It is credit to the developers & startups around the globe that Apple has relented -- the pioneering work by @appfairness also deserves recognition.

ADIF @adif_India

"This comes as a major victory for the developer and startup community who have been vocal against the restrictive and anti-competitive practices of the two big tech majors" - @sijokuruvilla on changes to #AppStore rules. @adif_India's full statement.👇🏽 https://t.co/5jPZUb7xTW

Read our full statement here.

What South Korea’s decision to limit Apple and Google control over app store payments means for India. ADIF’s Executive Director, Sijo Kuruvilla George wrote about how the legislation has opened the way for app developers to themselves choose their payment option as well as for other payment providers to compete in the app economy.

Until now, the conversation was limited to advocacy – bringing attention to the policies of Apple and Google and how they affect large segments of app store beneficiaries. It has now sharply shifted towards legislation.

Read the full op-ed here.

Our alliance is growing bigger and stronger

ADIF’s alliance is now over 450-members strong and we are eager to have each and everyone who is vested in the success of the Indian startup ecosystem as a part of our alliance.

Here are some of the most recent additions.

Find out more about our newest alliance members here.

Should you have any suggestions on who can join our network, feel free to reach out to Jibin, who oversees Startup Relations at ADIF, at jj@adif.in.