India Startups Join Effort to Break Google, Facebook Dominance
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chief executive officer of Paytm Mobile Solutions Pvt.
Photographer: Akio Kon/BloombergFounders of dozens of Indian startups gathered over a Zoom call earlier this week to discuss setting up a startup collective to fight the power of Big Tech, shape digital policy and lobby on behalf of the country’s digital enterprises.
About 56 founders were on the Tuesday evening video conference where discussions ranged from establishing an alternative to Alphabet Inc.-owned Google Play Store, the supremacy of large technology corporations such as Facebook Inc. and joining hands to get their voice heard by the government and the global behemoths.
“We, the country’s digital startups, need to have a joint voice so that the government and the people will listen,” said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the billionaire founder of the country’s leading digital payments brand, Paytm. “We can’t let all of India’s digital dreams get controlled by one or two global companies.”
The effort is similar to what is happening in the U.S. where an uprising of startups is protesting the dominance of the Google and Apple Inc. app stores and the fees they charge. Additionally, a U.S. antitrust committee is finalizing a report after a 15-month investigation into Google, Apple, Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook. China too is considering an antitrust probe into Google for using its Android mobile operating system to suppress competition, Reuters reported on Wednesday.