I’ve seen a pattern with founders around me, here in India. Don’t want to throw shade on anyone particular because this is a cultural thing rather than a few, so don’t think that I have someone specific in mind, but rather the archetype of me and people around me.

They want government intervention in the things that they buy, but hate any kind of intervention in things they sell.

In 2021, a post on twitter wanted government to set Maximum cap (MRP) on salaries because developers weren’t joining as they were getting better offers from different companies.

Most of the non-healthcare founders I see are celebrating that Supreme Court has asked Central Govt to set Standard Procedure Rates for hospitals.

So today, after Google unlisted apps for not following the terms of payments, the entrepreneurs, and their supporters too, want govt to intervene and let them bypass the in-app billing mandated by Google for content, gaming, dating apps on Play Store.

I started building Android apps in 2011. I have known since a very long time that you need to use in-app billing for some categories. Everyone knows it, Google had made it very clear. Yet, people were flouting those rules and billing customers with their own Payment Gateways.

Google was not effectively enforcing its terms, so there wasn’t any issue. Apple does enforce the terms, so these apps have to use in-app billing on iOS, which they do!

But now that Google has started enforcing its terms, people are asking the govt to step in? On top of that, they’re making it an issue of nationalism!

You are allowed to sideload apps on Android, there are multiple app stores which allow you to use a different payment gateway, big apps like Dream11 and MPL have been working this way and have become huge companies.

Yes, this will increase CAC, but if you want to use someone’s ecosystem, you will end up paying taxes to them. That’s just how the rules of the game are.

International apps of similar nature of the apps that have been banned use the in-app billing experience. Why will we get a different treatment?

We as a culture need to reflect and improve ourselves to be able to fight with global competition. These kind of things really do hold us back.