PhonePe launches ‘Indus Appstore’ for Android users: 4 lakh apps in it, can search in 12 Indian languages
Walmart-invested PhonePe has launched ‘Indus Appstore’ for Android smartphone users on February 21. According to the app’s About Us, Indus Appstore has around 4 lakh apps which can be searched and downloaded in 12 Indian languages.
PhonePe CEO and Founder Sameer Nigam said that Indus Appstore begins to provide healthy competition in the mobile app market. This will help in creating a more democratic and vibrant Indian digital system.
PhonePe invited developers in September 2023
Through this, the company wants to challenge Google’s monopoly in Android app distribution. The company had invited Android app developers to list their apps in September 2023.
No charge for app listing for 1 year
While inviting app developers, PhonePe had said that app listing on 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.
India is the world’s largest market in terms of app downloads
According to app intelligence firm data.ai, Indians spent about 1.19 trillion hours on mobile apps in 2023, up from 954 billion hours in 2021. The country is also the largest market in the world in terms of app downloads.
Number of smartphone users expected to reach more than 1 billion by 2026
Akash Dongre, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Indus Appstore, had said in September, ‘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.
