Indian gaming CEOs turn against Google’s extortion
Lambasts internet giant for charging 30% commission from developers
Since its entry in 2004, Google has driven pace of tech change in India
New Delhi: Leading gaming platform CEOs on Monday expressed their grave concerns over the ‘extortionist’ 30 per cent tax imposed by Google on gaming apps in the country. Mandatory in-app purchases force consumers to pay only through their payment systems, which involves a commission fee of up to 30 per cent.
Sai Srinivas, Co-founder and CEO, Mobile Premier League (MPL) highlighted that the 30 per cent commission may be viable in advanced markets like the US, but for India, it is crucial to ensure that Indian game developers receive more revenue to invest in game development and build more games.
If a developer charges Rs100, Rs30 goes to the play store or app store and Rs70 goes to the developer. From that Rs70, they have to pay for hosting, user acquisition, and other expenses.
“My view is that we should provide Indian game developers with more revenue to invest in game development and build more games,” Srinivas said at a at a panel discussion held at ‘Consilience 2023’, organised by the Law and Technology Society (L-Tech) at National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in partnership with All India Game Developers’ Forum (AIGDF).
Manish Agarwal, Co-founder, IndiGG, said the 30 per cent tax on gaming apps is unfair.
“The 30 per cent ‘jagirdari’ tax is an extortion and I believe in India we should not allow anybody to do this, especially when you’re not an Indian company,” he said.
