We have strong & proactive govt that won't fall for Big Tech's lies: Anupam Mittal

Continuing his fight against Google's new Play Store policies, Shaadi.com Founder and CEO Anupam Mittal on Monday said this is the new Digital East India Co and if we don't put in the right safeguards now, nothing can prevent these companies from controlling our economic future.

Mittal posted on X that India has changed and “we have a strong and proactive government that will not fall for Big Tech's lies, deceit and manipulation of the judiciary”.

He said that the core issue stems from Google and Apple's attempts to move the open Internet to a closed app ecosystem where they can lord over the Internet economy.

“They have already succeeded in muscling large swathes of the Internet and now want 100 per cent dominance. Current issue -- Google wants to charge anywhere between 11-30 per cent to app developers if they have a premium service and developers will file a tax return with Google every month so that they can audit & charge”.

Mittal commented as a group of select homegrown startups had a detailed discussion with Union IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, over how to resolve the deadlock.

He also tried to bust the myths Google has been propagating.

Google says that these Play Store charges are “because of infra and quality control”.

“If that's true, then why are these charges only for premium apps? Also, Google simply provides a link from the APK (Android Package Kit) and provides no infra to app developers. Google is only charging for Payment Gateway Services, the market rate for which is 1 per cent but because of their monopoly, they want 20x,” argued Mittal.

Google also claims that it gave three years to comply with the new rules.

“No time was given by them. It was the Indian judiciary that stopped them from delisting or levying charges,” Mittal informed.

According to him, the immediate solution is an intervention that prevents Google from any bundling at the device or customer end.

Mittal said that the long-term solution is the unbundling of Google and Apple services so the user has a choice on what App Store and apps to have as a default on their phone.