No Regulatory Headwind Too Strong To Shake Google: MapmyIndia’s CEO Rohan Verma On Battle Vs Google Maps

While Google’s appeal seeking interim relief against the competition watchdog’s (CCI) ruling was turned down by the Supreme Court last week, MapmyIndia’s CEO Rohan Verma fears that the battle of the Indian app ecosystem against the tech behemoth is far from being won. In particular, he is scathing on how the tech giant has forced Google Maps on to Android phones at the expense of the competition such as MapmyIndia.

In October last year, tech giant Google was hit with an INR 2,274 penalty by the CCI for alleged anti-competitive practices. The penalty came with directions for Google to make significant changes to how Android is distributed to customers (OEMs) as well as Google’s billing and payment policies for app purchases through the Google Play Store.

At the time, we wrote that these directives will change the course of India’s app ecosystem, since it would offer app developers and tech startups more distribution points and potentially better revenue.

As expected, Google appealed in the Supreme Court, asking for interim relief. However, the appeal has been turned down by the apex court.

If there’s a reason that MapmyIndia CEO Verma is wary of calling this a win yet, it’s because of the power that Google wields in the tech industry.

“Just look at what they did in the EU. They have been fined billions of dollars, but things seem to be just as they were before the fines,” Verma told Inc42 days after the SC ruling.

Verma’s belief that Google did not fix its algorithms and abuse of dominant position is backed by organisations such as Fairsearch, which had written to the EU commissioner for competition in 2018, after Google was fined $2.4 Bn in 2017.

Of course, Verma’s contention is primarily against Google Maps, which is the product that MapmyIndia primarily competes with. But he’s also quite keen on loosening the stronghold that Google Search has.

“We have been fighting this battle for 15 years. Google came to India with Maps in 2007, and it was an inferior product. They gradually improved it and then forced it on OEMs. But it’s still not suitable for the Indian market as much as MapmyIndia.”

Google Maps Vs MapmyIndia

Google Maps entered the Indian market in 2007, while MapmyIndia has been around since 1997, a whole decade before the tech giant. But Verma believes that even now features such as speed limit indicators, pothole indicators, 3D junction view (for exits and flyovers) set MapmyIndia apart from Google Maps.

“We believe that a lot of accidents can be prevented by these features. For an average person, if you see a speed limit, they will follow it, right? Behaviorally, this is important information. Most people will not overspeed when they have the information.”

Even as it launched in the market a decade after MapmyIndia, Google had the strength of position to dictate terms to Android device makers, car makers, TV makers and more. The primary issue is that Google mandated that device makers pre-install Google-made apps, with no possibility of replacements.

Verma said that while at one point, MapmyIndia came pre-installed on Samsung, Blackberry, and Motorola devices, Google’s mandate to some of these players pushed MapmyIndia out. It also made conversations with these OEMs impossible for players like MapmyIndia.

“The key point is when you hold so much market power, and you have made the OEM subservient to you, do you think the OEM will do anything against you? Google clearly made them sign a deal saying they will not do anything that will fragment Android,” the CEO told Inc42.

The point is that Google’s agreements with the OEM — the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA), the Anti-Fragmentation Agreement (AFA)/Android Compatibility Commitment (ACC), the Revenue Sharing Agreement (RSA) and Mobile Service Distribution/Placement Bonus Agreement — forced companies to occlude Google’s competition from being pre-installed.

‘Google Leaves Little Space For Competitors’

The CCI argued users do not download competitor apps to Google’s suite of applications due to a status-quo bias. Google left little space for competitors to enter the market, the antitrust watchdog said.

“So what were the options we had? Raise a billion dollars, and then pay that to Google to get our app in front of Google Maps? The cost is so high that it would make no business sense for us or anyone. And that’s what anti-competition law talks about. They have raised the bar so high for a competitor,” MapmyIndia’s Verma added.

For Verma, though, the fight is not just against Google Maps, but other products by the tech giant that also add to the anti-competitive practices. Take Google Search for instance. “About 25% of all searches are related to location and maps. And Google has nearly 100% market share in the search business. There’s no way to get MapmyIndia in the Maps section of search, because Google has completely controlled the experience.”

He adds that as a company, Google is of course free to make changes in its products, but the fact is that it is using its dominant position in search to also dictate how websites, publishers, content creators, bloggers and others publish content.

In fact, when it suited Google, it has backed anti-competition rulings such as the one against Microsoft in the EU in 2010 when it fought to add a feature in Windows to allow users to choose their browser of choice. This helped Google Chrome reach the highest market share in Europe.

Verma believes that Microsoft changed its behaviour and is as successful if not more than what it was in the 90s and 2000s.

“Nothing against these big companies. But today nobody says Microsoft is a monopoly. So Google has the right inspiration in the form of Microsoft. We don’t want Google Maps to be removed, but as a huge global company, Google has to be good for the world. You know they used to say don’t be evil. This is 100% not true. Now they are evil.”