PhonePe will launch App Store: Android app developers invited, company will challenge Google's dominance

Walmart-invested PhonePe is preparing to launch an app store for Android mobile users. The name of PhonePe's app store will be Indus Appstore. The company has invited Android app developers to list their apps.

Through this, the company wants to challenge Google's monopoly in Android app distribution. The company issued a statement saying, 'The apps will be listed on the soon-to-be-launched 'Made-in-India' Indus AppStore. It will be in 12 local languages, which will be completely customized according to Indian users.

To woo app developers, PhonePe said that app listing on the Indus Developer Platform will be free for the first year. After this, a nominal fee will be charged every year. The company has not yet given information as to how much annual fee it will charge from the developer after one year.

The company said that no platform fees or commissions will be charged to app developers for in-app payments. Developers will be free to provide any payment gateway of their choice in their apps.

Akash Dongre, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Indus Appstore said, 'The number of smartphone users in India is expected to reach more than 1 billion by 2026. This gives us a big opportunity to create a new-age localized Android app store. Despite having such a large customer market, app developers have always been forced to work with only one.