PhonePe launches Indus Appstore with focus on Indian languages, gaming

PhonePe has launched the Indus Appstore to challenge Google's stronghold in India's Android mobile apps ecosystem.

"The mission statement is quite simple. We want to build India's favourite app store. We want it to be loved by developers and customers alike," PhonePe Co-founder and CEO Sameer Nigam said at the launch.

The platform plans to differentiate itself through extensive support for local languages; a video-led app discovery approach; login through a verified mobile number instead of email; statutory approval for a broad array of games, including real-money gaming; and support for third-party payment providers.

The Indus Appstore will prioritise localisation by offering a toggle to switch between languages, ensuring that ads, descriptions, and other content are available in multiple regional languages like Hindi, Telugu, etc. The platform will also prioritise video-based discovery, capitalising on the popularity of short-form content and video formats for user engagement and app discovery.

Instead of relying on email IDs, the Indus Appstore will use mobile numbers for logins, offering personalised recommendations based on user behaviour and preferences.

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The platform will include "smart updates" that use data optimisation techniques to update apps in the background, potentially increasing adoption rates of new versions. Users will also be provided with recommendations on apps to put to sleep or delete to manage their device's storage better.

The Indus Appstore aims to build a comprehensive gaming suite, enabling access to a wide range of games from both domestic and global aggregators.

"There's going to be hundreds of thousands of casual games. We're talking to aggregators, both domestically as well as globally. We're launching about 200,000 mobile apps on the app store...and several tens of thousands of games," Nigam said.

"Since the developer platform announcement in November, dozens of large global aggregators have reached out across markets and said we want to list for the Indian market, so I think we will be able to get a lot more quality content coming fast," Nigam added.

Unlike other app stores that regulate content based on their policies, the Indus Appstore intends to remain neutral and not interfere in the type of content or applications allowed, potentially offering more freedom to developers in accordance with the law.

Founder Sameer Nigam did not provide concrete regulations that a developer must follow to upload their apps on the platform as it wants to onboard as many developers and app publishers as of now. It will later remove apps based on Indus' requirements and assess if they match the app store's standards.

"We will probably try and get every app developer in because we're trying to get a lot of people [to onboard with the app store] and in that, we might get some spurious apps, I am sure of it," Nigam said. "And there will be a cycle where we will actually filter hard and we might throw some babies out with a lot of bathwater. You have to bear with us."

On the Indus Appstore, developers will have the freedom to use any payment platform with no commission fee for in-app purchases. According to Google Play Store's payments policy, in-app purchases, developers are required to use its billing system which comes with a 15%-30% fee that the app marketplace levies.

Sameer said the Indus will make most of its revenues through advertisements on the marketplace, content discovery solutions, along with fintech services such as payments and mandate solutions for developers to use.

The company said that developers looking to list their apps on the store can do so without any charges for the first year. Nigam said that the platform is yet to come up with a pricing structure beyond the first year but said it will be in the "low single digits" on top of the basic fee.

(The article was updated with more information.)