New Delhi: India's top UPI payment app is PhonePe, which is supported by Walmart. It competes with Google Pay, the country's second-most popular UPI app, in the UPI market.

The rivalry between PhonePe and Google is about to heat up even more. The tech giant is expected to take offence at the fintech unicorn's plans to open an Android app store in the nation.

In India's UPI market, PhonePe and Google have been competing against one another for years. However, the former has much greater goals in mind than merely dominating the mobile payments market. With its hyper-local Pincode app, the company launched an e-commerce push earlier this month. The new app store, which is now independent of Flipkart, is another illustration of PhonePe's aspirational goals.

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The upcoming PhonePe app store will provide hyperlocalized services, similar to Pincode, which focuses on localised commerce. The emphasis of PhonePe's app store will be on contextually relevant apps and services. The app store will put a lot of emphasis on user acquisition. A premium user experience will be provided with "high-quality advertisements and custom targeting."

The alternative app store for PhonePe will support 12 languages, ensuring a localised user experience. It won't, however, be restricted to language. According to PhonePe, the experience will also be localised in accordance with "a consumer interest perspective" and "discovery." The business has already begun speaking with Indian suppliers of smartphones. Everyone is very open-minded, the company continued.

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The app store for PhonePe will open in the coming days. The company deemed the launch's timing to be favourable. It made reference to Google's legal disputes with the Indian Competition Commission (CCI). OEMs are now able to include additional app stores with their phones thanks to a directive from India's competition watchdog. Currently, Google holds a 97% market share for apps.

Google is anticipated to face a challenge from PhonePe's emphasis on providing a localised experience. PhonePe might be able to entice app developers given their issues with Google and its billing service.

This challenge might not be taken lightly by Google. Google may not want the same thing to happen in the app store market given that PhonePe has surpassed it in UPI payments.

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Currently, 46.38% of all UPI transactions are under PhonePe's control. The market share of Google Pay, on the other hand, is a far cry behind at 34.75%. PhonePe has a 49.45% market share in terms of transaction value, compared to Google Pay's 33.75%