Info Edge Shares Rise Following Founder's Google Invoice Clarification

1 Mar 2024 , 01:20 AM

Following founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani’s disclosure of receiving a notice from Google, the shares of Info Edge, the parent company of Naukri, saw a partial rebound.

On March 1, Google issued a warning, stating that if ten Indian businesses don’t pay a service charge to utilise its Play Store platform, Google may delete their apps. Separately, Reuters revealed that Info Edge and Matrimony.com are two of the apps that might be removed from the list.

Bikhchandani discussed the notification with CNBC-TV18, saying, ‘We complied with Play Store policies and received a notice from Google.’ We do not have any outstanding Google invoices. All have received their payments on schedule. The warning states that you will be delisted if you are non-compliant, not that we are being delisted.

Info Edge’s shares experienced a modest resurgence following Bikhchandani’s explanation. Following Bikhchandani’s explanation, the scrip increased intraday to ₹5,300 after dropping to ₹5,232. According to Matrimony.com, its legal team is ‘exploring next steps’ after analysing the Google warning.

The Supreme Court scheduled a hearing for March 19 after declining to issue an interim order in February that would have prevented online businesses like Matrimony.com from being removed from Google’s Play Store on February 9, 2024.

Google stated in a blog post that while some of the developers who were turned down for temporary protection have begun to fairly participate in the company’s ecosystem and revenue model, others have made the decision to find other means of not doing so.

‘While we always try to work with developers to help them through our policies and find feasible solutions, allowing this small group of developers to get differential treatment from the vast majority of developers who are paying their fair share creates an uneven playing field across the ecosystem and puts all other apps and games at a competitive disadvantage,’ the company stated.

However, Google also stated that it will continue ‘to offer our support to help developers get into compliance’ and that current customers will be able to access the apps without any issues.

It continued by stating that, if necessary, removing non-compliant apps from Google Play may be part of the policy’s enforcement. However, Google also stated that it will continue ‘to offer our support to help developers get into compliance’ and that current customers will be able to access the apps without any issues.

As part of its Payments Policy, it stated that developers are free to resubmit their apps for listing on Play by choosing one of the three available payment methods.

‘Today, we have over 2,00,000 Indian developers using Google Play who adhere to our policies, helping us ensure we have a safe platform; however, for an extended period of time, 10 companies, including many well-established ones, have chosen to not pay for the immense value they receive on Google Play by securing interim protections from the court,’ said the statement.

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