Indus Appstore and Eloelo say India needs its own digital goods marketplace

At YourStory’s TechSparks event, Indus Appstore Chief Business Officer Priya Narasimhan and Eloelo Group CTO Sagar Gaonkar argued that India’s app-first economy lacks a viable marketplace for digital goods. They said the country must control discovery, billing, and data trust layers to reduce reliance on global giants like Google and Apple, whose 15% to 30% commissions make low-cost digital products unviable.

Tarun Mottlia

Editor, Lazyfounder

Published Nov 2, 20263 min read

Why India’s digital economy needs local control

According to YourStory’s coverage of the TechSparks panel, India’s app-first economy has not yet built a thriving marketplace for digital goods. Google and Apple’s dominance in app distribution and their 15% to 30% billing commissions were cited as barriers to affordable digital products, particularly for microtransactions.

The speakers identified three layers India must control to achieve digital sovereignty: discovery and distribution through app marketplaces, monetisation and billing infrastructure, and a data trust and consent framework. They emphasized that sovereignty does not require rebuilding foundational technology but rather ensuring India can integrate global tools on its own terms.

AI and microtransactions in India’s market

AI-driven personalization is already shaping India’s digital economy, particularly in microdrama platforms like Eloelo. AI helps decide which content to greenlight and tailors stories to viewer preferences—reducing risk and improving engagement.

The panel highlighted that Indian users are value-conscious but willing to pay for digital goods. Examples like PhonePe’s Rs 10 gold purchases and the success of microdramas, OTT, and gaming demonstrate demand for low-cost, high-frequency transactions. However, current app store economics make such models difficult to scale.

To address this, platforms like Indus Appstore aim to lower commission burdens on developers and prevent discovery from becoming pay-to-play. Gaonkar and Narasimhan argued that hybrid marketplaces—simple for users but addressable by AI agents—could help developers scale whether users interact via taps or chatbots.

Fraud prevention and user trust

Fraudulent installs remain a challenge for app marketplaces. Indus Appstore uses a mix of automated checks, human review, and continuous monitoring to vet installs, though Narasimhan acknowledged no system is foolproof. Building trust with users and developers requires transparent consent frameworks and robust data security, especially as more tools are hosted outside India.

What this means

Lazyfounder analysis — our interpretation, not reported fact.

For Indian founders and operators, this discussion signals a structural gap in the country’s digital economy: the absence of a locally controlled marketplace for digital goods. Google and Apple’s duopoly imposes costs and constraints that make microtransactions and low-price digital products nearly impossible to scale. Indus Appstore’s push for lower commissions and AI-friendly discovery tools could create a more viable alternative, particularly for startups in gaming, OTT, and fintech microproducts.

The emphasis on AI-driven personalization and hybrid marketplaces also suggests a roadmap for Indian platforms. Startups in content, fintech, and app distribution can experiment with AI to tailor offerings to user preferences, reduce customer acquisition costs, and improve monetisation—without relying on pay-to-win discovery dynamics. Meanwhile, the focus on data trust and consent frameworks underscores the need for compliance and transparency, especially as global platforms tighten data access.

Sources

YourStory · 2026-10-30
India needs a digital goods marketplace and control of its distribution layer, say Indus Appstore and Eloelo

This story is an original summary drafted with AI by Lazyfounder from the reporting listed above and checked by automated validation. Facts are attributed to their original publishers; sections marked as analysis are Lazyfounder's. Where a source is in another language, facts were machine-translated and quotations are reported, not reproduced. Read the original coverage via the links, and see our AI policy and corrections policy.

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