PhonePe announced the opening of its Indus Appstore for consumers at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. PhonePe‘s endeavor to establish a more competitive and customized mobile app store market for India, the world’s largest market for app downloads, is known as Indus Appstore. Many luminaries in the tech business and founders of startups attended the event.

Indian users can download more than 2 lakh mobile apps and games from the Indus Appstore in 45 different categories. These apps will be available to users in 12 Indian languages, meeting the language needs of 95% of Indians. To increase customer engagement with a new app, the app store has introduced a brand-new discovery feature that is based on short videos.

As part of a global first, Indus Appstore gives game and app developers the freedom to select any third-party payment gateway for in-app purchases. If they opt to utilize an external payment gateway, there won’t be any commission fees. Indus will eventually offer its catalog and in-app billing systems as well, but app developers will only be able to use them at their discretion. Indus is also providing developers with a one-year zero listing charge offer to speed up developer registrations.

Given the recent clamor from the Indian startup community for greater free market competition in the mobile app store area, the timing of Indus Appstore’s launch becomes even more relevant.

“Indus Appstore challenges the status quo, ushering in an era of more healthy competition in the mobile app marketplace, which in turn should help create a more vibrant and democratic Indian digital ecosystem. Our dedication to creating a truly inclusive digital ecosystem where all Indian users feel at home is embodied by the Indus Appstore” said Sameer Nigam, CEO and Founder of PhonePe.

Indus Appstore is available for download at https://www.indusappstore.com.

Priyanka Dutta