Paytm, other Indian startups vow to fight ‘big daddy’ Google’s clout

New Delhi

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

Although Google, owned by Alphabet Inc, has worked closely with India’s booming startup sector, it has recently angered many tech companies with what they say are unfair practices. “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. 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.