I tried using the Indus Appstore…

A teardown of the “App Store that is made for India” — will it stick or fade away?

The Background

??February 22, 2024 — Walmart Inc.-owned Phonepe launches Indus Appstore — an Android-based Application store for customers in India. Pitting itself against the behemoth that Google Play Store is, Indus Appstore described itself as a “game-changer in India’s digital journey”. The store went live with 200K apps across 45 different categories with discoverability enabled in 12 Indian languages (that technically covers 95% of India’s language preferences). Additionally what it was offering to developers is noteworthy — 0 app listing fee for a period of one year — with the freedom of integrating ANY third-party payment gateway platform of their choice!

??March 1, 2024 — Google delists a set of prominent apps from ten Indian developers from its Play Store citing “non-compliance” to billing policies as the reason for the takedown. The delisted apps included a set of popular matrimony apps, some providing OTT content, and also an audio streaming app. This came at a time when a lot of Indian Internet Companies were butting heads with Google over what they felt were “unfair” policies (and honestly one can’t blame them fully!) with Google’s deep commissions on in-app purchases hitting the margins of these companies.

Info Edge India founder, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, called for a “strategic reaction” on the part of the Government of India and also put forth a need for an App Store that is a part of India’s digital public infrastructure. And he was not the only one seeking this solution.

Given what happened on March 1, Indus App Store’s launch could not have come at a better time — with developer and startup frustrations at an all-time high, an “ App Store Made for India” sounded like a panacea for all problems.

?The question however remains — will Indus Appstore succeed where the likes of Galaxy App Store, Huawei AppGallery, Amazon App Store, etc. failed? Will users take the longer route to get an app through the Indus App Store when they can directly download it from the Play Store? What would be the key differentiators?

??I was curious to see the journey that a user will need to go through to navigate the Indus Appstore and decided to try it myself. Here is what followed…

??Installation and Onboarding:

1. Given that it is an APK that one needs to install on their phone, I googled for Indus App Store and landed on their website. The landing page opened up really quickly, with the floating download button ensuring that I didn’t miss out on the link to get the APK on my phone. The fact that I could also switch to any of the 12 Indian languages readily was also a big plus I felt. So far so good!

2. I clicked on the Download button and lo — I get a warning message — now this is the part of the flow — something that will always come up till Indus App Store gets into partnerships with OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) but try explaining that to a not-so-tech savvy middle-aged user who would be skeptical at the very sight of the message. In any case, I moved on and downloaded the APK.

3. I opened the APK file, installed the app, and opened the App Store.

4. It asked me to allow notifications which I promptly did since I was keen to know what kind of notifications the store would send me.

5. The next step was to choose the language in which I would want to operate the store. I chose English and went ahead.

6. The next screen, honestly, was a bit confusing — I understand that Indus Appstore is a PhonePe product but this screen somehow made me think that I was using PhonePe — and it might be even more confusing for people who don’t know that Indus App Store is owned by PhonePe — and the warning text upfront with a login to a digital wallet will be enough to scare the daylights of a not so sophisticated users. Also, the SMS I got had no mention of the Indus Appstore and just PhonePe — while I understand this is a PhonePe-based login, a mention of the Indus Appstore somewhere would have been useful. Anyway, I put in my number and went ahead.

7. Another barrier — I had to Allow the Indus App Store permission to install “unknown apps” and then come back to the App Store. Another step — but it takes what it takes. So I gave the permission and came back!

And if you are keeping count that is 7 steps already to get to where Android Users will otherwise see after they log in to their Play Store account. Anyway, given that the Indus Appstore is yet to come preinstalled on devices, one would expect some extra effort. ?However, one good thing was that you don’t need an email address to sign up or log in — an OTP on your mobile number would suffice — something that will work well in the Indian market where a lot of people might not have/ easily remember their email credentials.

??The Actual App Store

The interface is actually quite clean — with categories neatly separated at the top — Top Apps, Top Games, News, Finance, Social, etc.

The prominent Download button underneath each app icon definitely helps save the additional click that you would otherwise do on Play Store (especially for Apps that you know of already and are keen to download).

Downloading Apps — you click on the Download button, and allow it to be installed on your device. I feel the second step was a bit unnecessary given that I am downloading the app with the intention of installing it so it should get downloaded and installed like it happens on Play Store (especially given the fact that I have already given Indus App Store the permission to “Install Unknown Apps”).

But apart from this, at an overall level, I found the app discoverability and cataloguing better here as opposed to what one gets on Playstore where categorizations and recommendations were slightly all over the interface.

??App Discoverability through Short Videos:

I scrolled a bit more and stumbled upon “Short Videos”. The interface looked very similar to how stories look on Instagram (a format now being used by a whole lot of other digital products — including ESPNCricinfo). I clicked on one of the shorts and it opened a video ad with a button to download the app — something which I feel was really good. As voracious consumers of digital content, we have been wired to react more positively to videos and I felt this way to get people to download the app and putting it in a dedicated space on the app store was really ingenious.

The ability to switch languages at the time of browsing through Apps was a big plus as well — so even if you missed that step during the onboarding stage, you can come here and switch between languages. The language switch button on the top-right corner, not only switches the interface but as is visible in the screenshot below, also switches other pieces of content — including app description. ??Good job on ensuring a localized experience, Indus Appstore!

App Page:

The App Pages are also quite neat. a. You can see video and image snippets from the app along with additional information and reviews. b. The ‘Verified’ badge adds a layer of credibility to apps. c. The search button on the top right corner ensures that you are still able to search for apps without having to go back to the main page and start from scratch. d. Also, I do like the distinction between download size and install size with Install Size clearly conveying the actual size that the app will take up on your device after you install it (and in case it was a toss-up between the two — I would always go with Install Size). The app recommendations too are related and not off.

??There is a pressing issue with the App Reviews though — I understand that because the login happens through PhonePe accounts, the app reviews are accompanied by masked-out numbers and names without profile pictures. Also, given the fact that the App Store is rather new, there is a rather acute shortage of quality reviews which can be detrimental to the cause of establishing trust in the users before they download an app. I also came across a few reviews where people had just left their email addresses or mobile numbers which could be also paid reviews.

??App Updates happening on the Play Store?

As a test, I downloaded the Blinkit app and proceeded to check the version installed. It mentioned that a newer version of the app was available for download but when I clicked on it, it prompted me to go to Playstore and update the app! Now, this in many ways defeats the purpose of having downloaded the app through a separate app store. I do understand that this could be on account of developers not publishing the latest build on the Indus App Store on account of the lack of traction but it doesn’t make for great viewing or branding if I download the app from a particular app store but have to go to another marketplace to get my app updated.

Can Indus Appstore compete?

I am sure that the product team at Indus Appstore will very soon figure out ways to plug the aforementioned gaps and drive home a more seamless experience but there are a few fundamental things that they still need to do to stand ANY chance of challenging Google’s dominance in the Indian App Market. It is estimated that 97% of India’s app market is captured by the Google Play Store and trying to make even a tiny dent into this % share would necessarily mean having:

a) Partnerships with OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) — The app store installation process, as we saw earlier, is a rather painful one. Partnerships with OEMs will ensure that the Indus Appstore comes preinstalled on phones at the time of purchase which can save the trouble of having to install it separately and going through a barrage of screens and a handful of suspicious warning messages. As I understand, the PhonePe leadership is trying to build partnerships with smartphone makers and expects the Indus Appstore to be live on a few major phone brands by the end of 2024.

b) Exclusive Apps for Indus Appstore & ensuring better discoverability— Indus Appstore will need a few more key differentiators to distinguish itself from the competition — while localized discoverability (for users) and zero app listing fee (for developers) are key differentiators, they are not enough. Indus Appstore will need to forge exclusive partnerships with smaller developers (possibly, to start with) and incentivize them even further to create quality apps that are available for download on the Indus Appstore. Gaming (including Real Money Gaming [RMG]) and Social and Dating apps could be categories where these partnerships could be forged. Up-and-coming OTT platforms could be another segment to target and form these partnerships. Lower commissions would mean that App Developers are also able to pass on certain benefits to the users who can then be incentivized to download the apps from the Indus Appstore.

c) Quicker deployments and approvals — As a PM, one of the benefits that I see on Playstore is the fact that the approval times on the updates are much lower than what they are on Apple’s App Store. I feel this is something that Indus Appstore needs to replicate — easy deployment, faster reviews and approvals of updates, and quicker release of updates in production (for users to download). More robust user and usage stats are something that product and development teams are always on the lookout for and this too could become a key differentiator on the developer side if done correctly.

At the time of writing this piece, I understand that the Indus Appstore has crossed a little over 1 million installations (so in around 6 weeks from the launch). While that might not be a particularly impressive number (given the grand vision of dislodging Play Store from the throne), what is interesting is that 45% of these installations have come from Tier 2 cities of India (which alludes to the fact that the regional language appeal is definitely working to a certain extent). Partnerships with OEMs will play a major role if the appstore is to reach anywhere near the 250–300 million installations it is gunning for by the end of this year. Will it reach there? Only time will tell…