While Google has eased our use of the internet enormously, with its search tool gaining the honour of being used in conversation as a generic verb, the US-based tech major’s all pervasive command seems to have shrunk the space open to competition online. Much of the anxiety aired over this has to do with its alleged exercise of clout to pre-empt rivals and squeeze dependent apps, which has caused severe heartburn among Indian startups. Some weeks ago, many of them arose in protest. And on Monday, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) initiated a probe into the allegations that Google was abusing its dominance of some markets. A day later, CCI wrote a letter to 17 Indian founders of startups with apps on Google Play Store, seeking their views on the nature of their partnership with it, in an effort to grasp the difficulties they might have faced, and also, among other things, the potential impact on India’s startup ecosystem if the company is indeed guilty.
Courtesyg: Google (photo)
