Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma announced an Rs. 10 crore fund to help the mini app developers.
Paytm announced the launch of the mini app store on Monday, days after tech entrepreneurs in India rallied for a national app store, but this is slightly different. Instead of giving native apps and developer tools, Paytm is hosting links to progressive Web apps (PWAs) which are light apps that can run within a Web browser without requiring any installation. As of now, the Mini App Store only has a few apps listed, although Paytm plans to list 300 services in the coming days.
According to Paytm’s press release, the Mini App store has been designed to help small developers and businesses in India to set up low-cost and easy-to-build apps using HTML and Javascript. These apps open within a window inside the Paytm app itself, and the listings will also be free, Paytm said.
Paytm said that the Mini App Store has been in its beta testing phase with select users in the country for some time and has seen over 12 million visits in the month of September. It has already been populated with a handful of apps such as AQI Monitor, EMI Calculator, MojoPizza, Horoscope, Speedtest, and Unit Converter. Paytm said that over 300 app-based service providers have already joined the programme, including the likes of Decathlon, Domino’s Pizza, FreshMenu, Netmeds, NoBroker, Ola, and more. These apps are expected to make their way to the Mini App Store soon.
