Highlights:
- Google removes the Paytm app from the Play Store
- Google says the app has violated its gambling policies
- Paytm has tweeted telling users that their money is safe
The US tech giant Google has revoked the famous Indian financial services application Paytm from its Play Store listing claiming it has violated the platform’s gambling policies. Paytm is India’s most valuable startup and claims more than 50 million or 5 crore monthly active users.
Its mobile app, which competes with Google’s own payment platform called Google Pay in India, disappeared from the Play Store in the country on Friday.
Google said that the Play Store prohibits online casinos and other unregulated gambling applications which assist sports betting in India. Paytm, which endorses fantasy sports service within its marquee app, repeatedly violated Play Store’s policies, two people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
Paytm’s fantasy sports service which is called Paytm First Games is also available as a standalone app and was also removed from the Google Play Store.
Google which also owns mobile OS (Operating System) Android and maintains similar guidelines in most of its other markets noted that if any application leads its consumers to an external website which allows them to participate in paid tournaments to win real money or even cash prizes is also in violation of its Play Store policies.
In an email that was read by the technology portal, TechCrunch, Google had told several companies in India to pause all of their advertising campaigns which drive users to websites that offer installation files of sports betting applications.
Currently, Google’s Pay app dominates the payments market in India.
After the ban, Paytm soon worked on damage control and tweeted “Dear Paytm’ers, 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,” to make sure the loyalty and goodwill are not hampered.
Dear Paytm’ers,
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.
— Paytm (@Paytm) September 18, 2020The announcement made by Google on Friday is also a preemptive attempt from the firm to remind the developers about its gambling policies just one day before the cash-rich popular tournament Indian Premier League is scheduled to begin.
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The previous seasons of the Indian Premier League which lasted for almost 2 months, each, and received huge attention from hundreds of millions of Indian have seen an increase in the applications which promote or even participate sports betting in India.
Betting on sports in India is banned, however, fantasy sports where users can select their favorite players and win if their line-up or players performs well then it is not illegal in most of the Indian states.
TechCrunch also reported that Google has also asked Disney+ Hotstar, one of the most famous on-demand video streaming platform in India, to display a warning before it runs ads about fantasy sports applications.
Suzanne Frey, Vice President of Product, Android Security, and Privacy wrote, “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,” in a blog post.
She added, “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,”.
Read the blog here. (https://india.googleblog.com/2020/09/understanding-our-play-gambling.html)
