Although Google has worked closely with India's booming startup sector and is ramping up its investments, it has recently angered many tech firms with what they say are unfair practices

Dozens of India's technology startups, chafing at Google's local dominance of key apps, are banding together to consider ways to challenge the U.S. tech giant, including by lodging complaints with the government and courts, executives told Reuters.

"It's definitely going to be a bitter fight," said Dinesh Agarwal, CEO of e-commerce firm IndiaMART. "Google will lose this battle. It's just a matter of time."

He said executives have discussed forming a new startup association aimed chiefly at lodging protests with the Indian government and courts against the Silicon Valley company.

Nearly 99% of the smartphones of India's half a billion users run on Google's Android mobile operating system. The uproar began last month when Google removed popular payments app Paytm from its Play Store, citing policy violations. This led to a sharp rebuke from the Indian firm's founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, whose app returned to the Google platform a few hours later, after Paytm made certain changes.

This week the U.S. company angered some Indian startups by deciding to enforce a 30% commission it charges on payments made within apps on the Android store. Two dozen executives were on a call on Friday where many slammed that decision. They discussed filing antitrust complaints and approaching Google’s India head for discussions, said two sources with direct knowledge of the call.

Participants included sports technology firm Dream Sports, backed by U.S. hedge fund Tiger Global, social media company ShareChat and digital payments firm PhonePe, the sources said. None of those companies responded to requests for comment. Google defends the policy, saying 97% of apps worldwide comply with it.

Google already faces an antitrust case related to its payments app in India and a competition investigation into claims it abused Android’s dominant position. The company says it complies with all laws.

These spats strain Google’s strong ties to Indian startups. It has invested in some and helped hundreds with product development. In July, its Indian-born CEO Sundar Pichai committed $10 billion in new investments over five to seven years.

The conflict “is counterproductive to what Google has been doing - it’s an odd place for them to be,” said a senior tech executive familiar with Google’s thinking. “It’s a reputation issue. It’s in the interest of Google to resolve this issue.”

Paytm told several startup founders, in a communication seen by Reuters, that it was collating input on challenges to Google Play Store and its policies to submit to the authorities.

Source- Reuters