Search engine giant Google is in talks with the leading Indian telecom operator Airtel to provide Play Store carrier billing support in the country, claims an The Economic Times report. Carrier billing support will let Android users to pay for the downloaded applications, other content and in-app purchases via their service provider rather than using other payment modes such as debit or credit cards.
This move of Google will boost the purchase of paid applications in India as the credit card penetration in the country stands only at a paltry 2 percent. The increase in paid app purchase will benefit the application developers and content developers to enjoy more revenue.
The report adds on that both Google and Airtel are in discussions regarding the revenue sharing means as the former is demanding 90 percent of the same. Currently, for Airtel’s app store, it takes 50 percent of the revenue and passes the rest to the developers. On the other hand, Google takes 20 percent and passes the rest to the developer without carrier billing.
Back in May, Google added support to PayPal for carrier billing. As mentioned above, the Indian users avoid credit card payments owing to security reasons and paying for paid applications along with monthly phone bill would be a convenient option.
While Google is yet to bring about Google Play direct operator billing to India, the same is already available in 26 countries via 51 telecom service providers.
To be updated...