Google extends its loyalty programme Play Points to India

Google announced on October 11 that it is extending Google Play Points, a loyalty programme that helps consumers earn points and rewards with its app marketplace Google Play Store, to users in India in the coming week.

First introduced in September 2018, the programme is available in 28 countries at present and the company claims that "over 100 million people find value in the programme".

Google Play Points allows users to earn points for purchases of digital content, in-app items, and downloads from the Google Play Store. The programme will have four tiers based on the number of points they collect, namely Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

These points can be used to get discount coupons, in-app rewards or Google Play Credit, with different perks or prizes depending on the tier the user is in. One can join the programme for free by tapping their profile icon present at the top right of the Google Play Store app and then selecting the Play Points option.

Google said it has partnered with developers of popular apps and games across the world to help users redeem their points for special in-app items.

At launch, over 30 titles are participating in the programme, which includes global game studios such as Miniclip (8 Ball Pool), TG INC (Evony: The King’s return), local game studios such as Gametion (Ludo King), Playsimple Games (Word Trip), and Gameberry Labs (Ludo Star) and prominent apps such as caller identification app Truecaller and mental health app Wysa. Google said it will continue to expand the programme with more global and local developers in the future.

"We are committed to building products and programs that the Play community - both users and developers - find value in. Play Points will also provide local developers with a new avenue to build a local and global user base; helping them engage their users, drive discovery, and acquire users across markets that have Google Play Points" Santos Cohen, Director, Go-To-Market, Google Play Points said in an official blogpost.

Google claims that many participating developers have registered an incremental revenue uplift between 5% and 30%.

This launch comes at a time when India is emerging as a key monetization opportunity for the app marketplace, thanks to the rising adoption of digital transactions, particularly the Unified Payment Interface (UPI).

Aditya Swamy, Director, Play Partnerships, Google India had recently told Moneycontrol that Indian apps and games saw an 80 percent increase in consumer spends in 2021 compared to 2019 on Google Play, without disclosing more information on app spends.

Google also introduced an app subscription service Google Play Pass, that provides access to over 1,000 apps and games without ads, in-app purchases, and upfront payments in February 2022. The subscription service is available for a monthly fee of Rs 99 per month or Rs 889 for the year.