PhonePe has been competing with Google in India’s UPI (Unified Payments Interface) space. However, PhonePe has been venturing beyond the payments space; the company recently began a new hyper-local app called Pincode. Now, with the upcoming launch of a different app store, PhonePe seems to take the fight with Google in another segment.
As per an internal company document reviewed by TechCrunch, the upcoming app store by PhonePe is intended to provide hyper-localised services tailored to customer context. It aims to aid developers in acquiring users of “high-quality” through multilingual solutions.
PhonePe, which already competes with Google’s Google Pay app, will be taking on the company with deep collaboration with smartphone vendors, including companies like Xiaomi, tells a source familiar with the matter. The company is already in talks with more OEMs and aims to be live on all Android OEMs within the first few months of launch.
According to the internal document, the app store is designed to provide a premier experience to millions of users, featuring high-quality advertisements and custom targeting. It will also support 12 languages and offer 24×7 live chat support.
PhonePe’s foray into the app store market, which is expected to happen in the coming weeks, comes after the Indian fintech acquired IndusOS, an app store provider that partnered with smartphone vendors to offer its services to customers.
PhonePe, with its massive user base of over 450 million registered users in India, sees an opportunity to create an alternative app store more localised in language, discovery, and consumer interests, according to a statement to TechCrunch.
The company further adds that the recent order from the Indian antitrust watchdog, the Competition Commission of India, allowing other developers to build and launch their app stores on Google Play is favourable timing for PhonePe’s app store plans.
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