Paytm ‘Mini App Store’: Why it is not an ‘Appy’ story

Google removed Paytm from Google Play for a few hours on September 18 for violating policies. It called out Paytm for allegedly promoting ‘gambling’ through its IPL cashback contest. A huge uproar on social media followed soon and Paytm through its blog post showcased how they were unfairly targeted by Google. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO at Paytm himself explained Google’s bias and why Indian startups need to come together and create a parallel ‘atmanirbhar’ app store to compete with Google.
Within three weeks, Paytm has officially launched its ‘Android Mini App Store’. Some Paytm users claim that this ‘mini app store’ has been present inside the main Paytm app for a couple of weeks at least. But the bigger question is whether this is an actual app store or not? And is Paytm using the term “mini App store” to its advantage?
Paytm can’t declare itself as a full-fledged app store as long as it wants to stay on Google Play store. This is simply because Google Play being an app store itself will not allow another app store to function and let Android apps be downloaded through it.