More Indians paying for apps now, says Google

Indian consumers spent three times more on smartphone apps in the past year, according to Google, which sees this as an inflection point in the country’s digital ecosystem that will allow developers to finally monetise their apps.

“If there’s one thing that the Indian internet ecosystem has been challenged with, it is monetisation. But we believe that the time has come where we’re beginning to see a change in monetisation in India,” said Rajan Anandan, managing director, Google India.

Alongside seeing app downloads on its Play Store exceed one billion recently, the company said it saw a 300 per cent growth in customer app spends. This included upfront payments for buying apps, in-app purchases and the money that people paid for subscribing to services.

At its first App Excellence Summit held in Bengaluru on Tuesday, Google said it was gearing up for this change by building a robust payment system on its Play Store. Google now accepts payments through credit/debit cards, direct carrier billing and even payments through popular digital wallets.

The company said it was also constantly looking at adding newer payment methods which are being widely adopted by users, when asked if the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) would soon make a debut on the Play Store. Read More