PhonePe is opening its mobile app store to developers. The soon-to-be-launched app store—Indus—will offer localised services for Indian users.
The company has invited Android app developers to register and upload their apps on the platform. These apps will be listed on the soon-to-be-launched ‘Made-in-India’ app store, Indus Appstore, offering a localised experience in 12 languages for Indian audiences.
The company has kept the app listings free for the first year, post which a nominal annual fee will apply.
“The Indus Appstore will not charge developers any platform fee or commission for In-App Payments. Developers will be free to integrate any payment gateway of their choice inside their own apps,” PhonePe said in its statement.
Also read: PhonePe forays into stock Broking, launches new platform
The Indus Appstore will provide developers with an alternative distribution channel to tap into the Indian Android market. It will also assist them with high-quality user acquisition through multilingual app discovery.
Moreover, for start-ups and new app launches, it will have a dedicated platform ‘Launch Pad’ to provide these new apps with better visibility as well as search optimisation.
It will also offer several developer tools and features to address the challenges faced by most Android developers, including a dedicated round-the-clock customer support team based in India, the option to list their app in 12 Indian languages besides English and the ability to boost brand awareness via engaging videos.
“India is poised to have over 1 billion smartphone users by 2026 offering us a massive opportunity to build a new-age, localised Android app store. Despite being such a large consumer market, app developers have always been forced to work with only one app store – Google Playstore – for distributing their apps. Indus Appstore hopes to provide app developers a credible alternative to the Google Playstore – one that is more localized and offers better app discovery and consumer engagement. We are excited to open up the Indus Appstore Developer Platform today, and invite all developers to list their app on the Made-in-India app store,” said Akash Dongre, CPO & Co-Founder, Indus Appstore.
Last year, the company completed the acquisition of mobile platform OSLabs after reaching an amicable settlement with the company’s majority shareholder Affle Global Pte Ltd.
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Published on September 23, 2023
