Industry body COAI on Tuesday said technology giants are ready to evict non-paying small businesses from their app platforms though these large traffic generators (LTG) themselves prefer to enjoy a free ride over telecom service providers' networks.
The comments have come against the backdrop of internet giant Google seeking to impose a fee of 11 per cent to 26 per cent on in-app payments.
Google last week removed apps that were not paying the fee after the Supreme Court did not provide interim relief to companies behind these apps in their battle against the search giant's app marketplace fee.
"It is rather surprising that these LTGs, which are generally global corporates based in foreign countries, are ready to evict non-paying small businesses as they expect the 'immense value' that their platform provides to the apps, themselves prefer to enjoy a free ride over the TSPs' networks, while profiting heavily from them.
"Moreover, they continue to make misleading claims that the proposed fair-share would hurt the start-ups, MSMEs and smaller players and constrain innovation, which is clearly contrary to the truth," COAI director-general S.P. Kochhar said in a statement.
After government intervention, Google has agreed to restore apps and work out a solution with apps over the dispute on payment charges.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has proposed a 5-8 per cent revenue share fee on large traffic generator (LTG) apps such as Google, Netflix, Facebook and Twitter to support the cost of maintaining their telecom infrastructure.
Google move
Google on Tuesday began reinstating about 250 Indian apps it had delisted from its Play Store over a billing dispute as it caved in to government criticism, but the squabble may not yet be over.
The matrimony, dating and other apps were being allowed back on the Play Store but Google will continue to bill the companies a service fee of 11 per cent to 26 per cent on in-app payments during the 3-4 months period the two sides will sit across to resolve the dispute.
