Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi said on Thursday that Android smartphones for sale in India will be pre-installed with the App Store of Indian fintech company PhonePe.
Xiaomi Android smartphones usually come with Google's Play Store and Chinese companies' own GetApps pre-installed. Xiaomi said it has signed a multi-year agreement with Phonepe to replace GetApps with the latter Indus Appstore. This confirms TechCrunch's report on the partnership last year.
Google's Play Store is still pre-installed on Xiaomi devices. The company did not specify whether the Indus Appstore will also be deployed to existing Xiaomi devices already on sale, or whether it can be purchased at retailers now. They also did not mention when this would come into effect.
Phonepe is trying to take on something like Google for its share of the Indian app market and is committed to charging zero fees from developers for in-app purchases. Indus Appstore supports 12 Indian languages, features a video-driven discovery feed, and has over 500,000 apps in different categories.
However, we found it difficult to scale up because alternative app stores take time to establish trust with users and convince users to install yet another app store. Phonepe is trying to overcome at least one of these hurdles by pre-installing the App Store on new smartphones. To date, FinTech has not released a number that shows how many downloads and money its app stores have earned for developers.
“As India's digital ecosystem continues to grow, the demand for the locally driven app market has become more important than ever. Xiaomi India has always defended the innovation of 'Make for India'. This partnership with Indus Appstore is a strategic step in that direction.”