The Internet giant said that the relief will “provide developers in India the required product support for recurring payments through convenient user payment systems, including UPI and wallets, and also provide them more time in light of the changes to India’s recurring digital payments guidelines.”
This is the second extension to the deadline in the last one year from the company which has been under pressure from app developers, start up and regulators in India and globally for charging a high commission and payment policies which gives preference to Google’s payment options. Google has also slashed the commission fee from 30% to 15% earlier this year to appease the ecosystem.
A Google spokesperson told ET, “We recognize the unique needs of the developer ecosystem in India and remain committed to partnering with developers in India on their growth journey. In October 2020, we had announced 31st March 2022 as the timeline for developers in India to integrate with Play’s billing system. We are extending this to 31st October 2022 to provide developers in India the required product support for recurring payments through convenient user payment systems, including UPI and wallets, and also provide them more time in light of the changes to India’s recurring digital payments guidelines.”
In July the company reduced the service fee on the first $1 million (USD) in annual developer earnings to 15%. Later in October, Google announced further changes to Google Play’s service fee model, cutting fees for subscriptions from 30% to 15% and further reducing the fee for specific verticals of apps in the Play Media Experience Program to as low as 10%.
The company has seen pressure mounting from developers in India, its largest market in terms of the user base, who have asked the company to allow other payment mechanisms for purchases by customers.
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The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) also filed a petition before the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in October seeking interim relief from Google’s new PlayStore policy which was earlier supposed to come into effect from March 2022.
