Google has removed the popular Indian financial app Paytm from the Google Play Store for violating its gambling policies. Paytm is India’s Most worthy startup and claims over 50 million monthly active users.
Google stated that the Play Store prohibits online casinos and other unregulated gambling applications that facilitate sports betting in India. Paytm, which has promoted fantasy sports service inside its marquee app, repeatedly violated Play Store’s regulations.
In an e-mail Google has sent to many companies in India, the corporate has asked developers to pause all advertising campaigns of their apps to drive users to websites that offer installation files of sports betting apps.
The announcement in the present day from Google is also a preemptive attempt from the corporate to remind other developers about its gambling policies against of the popular cricket tournament Indian Premier League, which is scheduled to Remove tomorrow.
Paytm mentioned that Remove from Play Store is temporary in a tweet on its official account:
Earlier seasons of IPL, which last for almost two months and attract the eye of lots of millions of Indians, have seen a surge in mobile apps that look to advertise or participate in sports betting.Dear Paytm'ers,— Paytm (@Paytm) September 18, 2020
Paytm Android app is temporarily unavailable on Google's Play Store for new downloads or updates. It will be back very soon.
All your money is completely safe, and you can continue to enjoy your Paytm app as normal.
While sports game betting is banned in India, fantasy sports activities, where folks choose their favorite players and win if their preferred teams or players play nicely, is not illegal in most Indian states.
“We have these policies to protect users from potential harm. When an app violates these policies, we notify the developer of the violation and remove the app from Google Play until the developer brings the app into compliance,” mentioned Suzanne Frey, Vice President, Product, Android Security, and Privacy, in a blog.
“And in the case where there are repeated policy violations, we may take more serious action which may include terminating Google Play Developer accounts. Our policies are applied and enforced on all developers consistently,” she stated.
In an interview with CNBC TV18, Paytm chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma accused Google of not permitting Paytm to acquire new users.
He acknowledged that Google had reached out to Paytm before and raised considerations about Paytm First Games, however, the incident with Paytm’s major app, he stated, is over “nothing, but” paying cashback to clients.
The cashback was issued in methods of cricket-themed scratch cards, he stated, adding that if Paytm isn’t allowed to issue cashback to customers, the same rule should be applied to every player. Google Pay, in addition to Walmart’s PhonePe, give prospects similar incentives in India.
“This is the problem of India’s app ecosystem. So many founders have reached out to us… if we believe this country can build a digital business, we must know that it is at somebody else’s hand to bless that business and not this country’s rules and regulations,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), an “industry body” that shows some fantasy sports corporations, claims it complained to Google to take action on firms that distribute or promote fantasy sports by Play Store.
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