Google India is deferring the enforcement of its new Play Store billing rule in to April 2022, days after more than 150 startups in the world’s second largest internet market forged an informal coalition to express concerns over the 30% charge the Android-maker plans to mandate on its store and started to explore an alternative marketplace for their apps.

Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai

The company, which is going live internationally with the new Play Store rule in September 2021, is holding back the enforcement of the policy only in India, it said. It is also listening to developers and willing to engage to allay their concerns, it said.

Purnima Kochikar, Director of Business Development of Games & Applications at Google Play said: “We are setting up listening sessions with leading Indian startups to understand their concerns more deeply. We will be setting up Policy Workshops to help clear any additional questions about our Play Store policies.

And we’re also extending the time for developers in India to integrate with the Play billing system, to ensure they have enough time to implement the UPI for subscription payment option that will be made available on Google Play — for all apps that currently use an alternative payment system we set a timeline of March 31,  2022.”