Paytm has had its feud with google pay for quite some time now. Recently, Google removed Paytm from google play saying that it had violated some gambling policies. All this was then followed by some heated arguments online.
On Monday, Paytm announced the launch of a “mini-app store”. Instead of giving native apps and developer tools, Paytm is hosting links to progressive Web apps (PWAs) which are light apps that can run within a Web browser without requiring any installation. As of now, the Mini App Store only has a few apps listed, although Paytm plans to list 300 services in the coming days.
WHAT ARE MINI APPS
Mini apps are basically custom-built mobile websites that give an app-like experience to the users but without actually having to download them. In other words, these “mini-apps” are just web pages that open from inside the Paytm app. Just because a web page pops out inside the Paytm app doesn’t make the web page an app. Also, just as Paytm can showcase a bunch of shortcuts to mobile webpages of popular apps don’t make it an app store of any stature.
The step was basically taken by Paytm to enter the app market without violating google’s policies and managing to stay on google play. Currently, Paytm is doing nothing but supporting existing android apps. So as to create a market buzz about the mini-app concept, Paytm may need to add a few extra incentives. This is important because if end users don’t see any benefit in using mini-apps they might as well shift to using the native apps. Meanwhile, Paytm is also hosting a developer’s conference on October 8 and we can expect to get more clarity.
