Why Shark Tank fame Anupam Mittal calls Google 'Digital East India Company'
The entrepreneur says Indian startups must be 'saved' from Google's 'lagan' as the tech giant removes apps from its Play Store, including Mittal's Shaadi.com
Is Google the 21st century's 'Digital East India Company?' Anupam Mittal of Shark Tank fame thinks it is.
Mittal, the owner and founder of Shaadi.com and an angel investor, slammed Google late last week for taking down several apps from its Play Store. He compared the the Silicon Valley tech giant with East India Company of the bygone era for its arbitrary act, calling it the digital version of the British firm that first came to India to trade and ended up ruling the country.
'Dark day'
Mittal’s remarks came after Google removed many Indian mobile apps owing to a raging dispute over the payment of service fee, including his own Shaadi.com and its rival, Bharat Matrimony. Calling it a dark day for digital India, Mittal wrote on his X handle, “Today is a dark day for India Internet. Google has delisted major apps from its app store even though legal hearings are underway.” He tagged the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the Supreme Court to draw their attention.
It is interesting to note that in October 2022 the CCI slapped a fine of Rs. 936 crore on Google for exploiting its predominance in the play store ecosystem. Google challenged the order in the National Company Law Tribunal and the Supreme Court, which is still pending.
'Stop lagan'
The D2C tech investor said that their “false narrative and audacity show they have little regard for” the law of the land. “Make no mistake – this is new Digital East India Co and this #Lagan must be stopped,” he wrote further on X, formerly Twitter, while making an appeal to “save our startups”.
His invoking the historically dreaded term “lagan” – tax – for the service fee Google charges from start-ups echoes the growing disenchantment among tech entrepreneurs and start-ups of the country against Google.
Google, however, began to restore the apps it had removed from its Play Store after Union Minister of Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw intervened.
Mittal, a 52-year-old entrepreneur, has been a prominent investor in Shark Tank Season 1 , 2 and 3. He has invested in over 250 companies till date. He was the co-founder and chairperson of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), and is currently on its Governing Council.