Google Removes Paytm Android App From PlayStore for Repeat Policy Violations

Google has pulled down India’s famous financial services app from the Play Store for violating its gambling services. Paytm is an Indian most valuable startup and has over 50 million monthly active users. The competitor of Google Pay in India, Paytm, disappeared from the Play Store earlier this Friday.

Google reported that Play Store forbids online casinos and other unregulated gambling apps, which encourages sports betting in India. Paytm that promotes fantasy sports service continuously violated Play Store’s policies; two people reported the matter to the TechCrunch. Paytm’s fantasy sports service, called Paytm First Games, which was available as a standalone app, has also been pulled out.

The Android Maker that maintains and follows similar guidelines about gambling in contemporary markets, additionally declared that if an app takes consumers to an external website, which enables them to participate in paid tournaments to win real money or cash prizes, will also count in violation of its Play Store policies.

Google has sent an email to a multitude of companies that was reviewed by TechCrunch, in which the Company has asked developers to pause all advertising campaigns in their apps to drive users to websites, which offer installation files of sports betting apps. The tweet by Paytm says,

“Dear Paytm’ers,

Paytm Android app is temporarily unavailable on Google’s Play Store for new downloads or updates. It will be back very soon. All your money is completely safe, and you can continue to enjoy your Paytm app as normal.”

This is a huge announcement by Google to give a message or remind other developers about its gambling policies a day before the Indian Premier League is going to start.

Previous year during IPL, there was an unprecedented rise in the usage of these apps, which promote sports betting.

Legally sports betting is banned in India, but users can choose their favorite players and win if their selected team or players play well is not illegal in most Indian states.

Google has asked Disney+ Hotstar, one of the most famous on-demand video streaming services in India, to showcase a warning message before running ads about fantasy sports apps.

“We have these policies to protect users from potential harm. When an app violates these policies, we notify the developer of the violation and remove the app from Google Play until the developer brings the app into compliance,” wrote Suzanne Frey, Vice President, Product, Android Security and Privacy, in a blog post.

“And in the case where there are repeated policy violations, we may take more serious action which may include terminating Google Play Developer accounts. Our policies are applied and enforced on all developers consistently,” she added.

In an interview with CNBC TV 18, Paytm’s Co-founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma accused Google of curbing Paytm to multiply new users.

He said, “Google had reached out to Paytm before and raised concerns about Paytm First Games, but the incident with Paytm’s main app, he said, is “nothing but” for paying cashback to customers.”

Post your comments below about the decision taken by Google.