Walmart Owned Indian Fintech PhonePe Eyes App Store, Compete With Google Play In Dominated Region

Walmart Inc WMT backed Indian fintech firm PhonePe is preparing to launch a dedicated app store for Android users in India.
The app store, designed to offer hyper-localized services based on customer context, aims to assist developers with “high-quality” user acquisition through multilingual solutions, TechCrunch cites internal documents.
The app store will offer a “premiere experience for millions of users with high-quality advertisements and custom targeting,” support for 12 languages, and 24×7 live chat.
PhonePe commands the mobile payments market in the second-largest Asian economy.
The move follows the 2022 acquisition of IndusOS, an app store maker that served customers through partnerships with smartphone vendors.
PhonePe, which competes aggressively with Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google’s Google Pay app in India, plans to intensify its engagement with smartphone vendors, including firms including Xiaomi Corp XIACF XIACY.
A PhonePe spokesperson said that Google commands 97% of the Indian app store market, and there’s an opportunity for someone like PhonePe, which has amassed over 450 million registered users in the country, to build an alternative app store.
The timing is also “favorable for us,” the firm said, pointing to a recent order from the Indian antitrust watchdog Competition Commission of India that paves the way for other developers to build and launch their app stores on Google Play.
PhonePe confirmed that it’s holding multiple conversations with phone makers in India and said, “everyone is very receptive, especially since CCI has clarified that Google cannot engage in anti-competitive practices.”
Price Action: WMT shares traded higher by 0.33% at $152.23 premarket on the last check Monday.