A shadow war has been going on between the Government of India and Google for a long time. The US-based multinational corporation and technology company, focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics and Artificial Intelligence (AI), recently removed 10 Indian application programmes (or apps) from its Play Store for not paying service charges. The problem was resolved after a few days with the intervention of the Narendra Modi Government in New Delhi. The Indian Government forced Google to bring those apps back to the Play Store. Since then, Google’s monopoly dominance in the online search market has become the most discussed issue.

Google suddenly removed 10 Indian apps, including Shaadi.com, Matrimony.com, Bharat Matrimony, Kuku FM, etc., from the Play Store on March 1, 2024, prompting a number of Indian start-up companies to lodge a complaint against the US tech giant. Google defended its move, claiming that the service charges help the company to build a supportive environment for the android system and the Play Store. Commenting on the issue, Murugavel Janakiraman, the founder and CEO of Matrimony.com Limited (an Indian Internet business that was ranked among the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 companies in India in 2011, 2009 and 2008), stressed that March 1 was a black day for India in terms of internet services. Anupam Mittal, an Indian entrepreneur, business executive, angel investor and the founder-CEO of People Group and Shaadi.com, also criticised Google’s decision, drawing comparisons between Google and the British East India Company.

Immediately after Google removed those 10 Indian apps from the Play Store, the Indian start-up companies brought the matter to Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Indian Minister of Railways, Communications, and Electronics & Information Technology. The minister took an initiative to resolve the issue by holding a meeting with top Google officials. Later, the removed apps returned to the Play Store. It is to be noted that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had previously ordered the cancellation of the 15%-30% tax structure of Google. Later, the Supreme Court (SC) of India intervened in this matter, and Google started enjoying the power to levy service charges and to remove apps from the Play Store (in case of a failure in paying those charges) once again. However, some Indian start-up companies opposed the SC’s judgement, stressing that Google was taking advantage of its monopoly in the online search market to force various companies to follow only its own methods of paying service charges for app usage.

There is nothing new in this accusation against Google. Way back in 2023, PhonePay announced the creation of its own App Store. Although it is still in the experimental stage, experts are of the opinion that Google shall never allow PhonePay to succeed. Different companies opposed the Play Store policy of Google in the past, as well. In fact, the CCI imposed a penalty of USD 162 million on Google in 2022 for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies.

The entire world is now heavily dependent on smartphones. With an increase in the use of smartphones, various types of application programmes have come into existence. Users of android mobiles have no other option, but to install Google Play Store in order to get access to various apps. For iPhone users, there is the Apple Store. However, the majority of people use android mobiles across the globe, and they have to use the Google Play Store for downloading apps.

So far, not a single company, other than Google, has managed to create a platform, like Play Store. Several other browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Firefox, lost popularity as they could not compete with Google. Many have compared the dominance of Google with the rule of the British East India Company. Just like the British had ruled India in the guise of merchants in the 19th and 20th Century, Google is showing its great power in the world of technology. During colonial British rule, other imperialist powers, like the Portuguese, the French and the Dutch, set up their respective East India Companies and arrived in India. However, they failed to rule the South Asian nation. It was seen that the British rulers used to impose taxes on Indians as per their wish! Google follows the same policy in the modern digital world.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das