In India, the effort to bring more business to local firms has Big Tech in its crosshairs.
And perhaps strengthen the country’s burgeoning eCommerce ecosystem in the process.
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Bloomberg reported on Thursday (Oct. 1), the founders of dozens of tech firms housed in India held a Zoom call aimed at setting the wheels in motion to form what’s being billed as a “startup collective” to battle Big Tech — Google and Facebook, among others — across a number of fronts.
The call took place on Tuesday (Sept. 29), according to reports, and involved more than 50 tech firm founders. Discussion topics ranged from establishing alternatives to Alphabet’s Google Play Store to pushing for other digital policies promoted within India. The organization’s roster may extend well beyond the Zoom call, and as noted by sites such as TechCrunch, may number more than 150 firms.
Names being considered for the collective include the India Internet Foundation, among others.
The movement comes on the heels of Google’s announcement that it will charge 30 percent fees for payments through apps for online services that include dating and education. Android has 95 percent market share in the country.
At a high level, the push to form a collective hearkens back to the Modi government’s efforts to spur consumers to “buy local” and to be “vocal about local.” Global companies (not based in India) have held dominance across any number of markets, such as smartphones and televisions (90 percent share) and in cosmetics and other consumer staples. Elsewhere as PYMNTS reported Thursday, Amazon recently invested $152 million into its Amazon Seller Services unit in India.
Banks, corporates and even regulators now recognize the imperative to modernize — not just digitize —the infrastructures and workflows that move money and data between businesses domestically and cross-border. Together with Visa, PYMNTS invites you to a month-long series of livestreamed programs on these issues as they reshape B2B payments. Masters of modernization share insights and answer questions during a mix of intimate fireside chats and vibrant virtual roundtables.
