Google is in talks with the Indian government to integrate its shopping service with ONDC, the country’s open e-commerce network, according to people familiar with the matter.
Late last month, the Indian government launched its Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) marketplace in an attempt to end the dominance of two U.S. companies, Amazon and Walmart, in fast-growing e-commerce.
T. Koshy, ONDC’s chief executive, told Reuters that Google was one of many companies that were discussing joining the project.
Negotiations are taking place on the condition that the government advocates a unified payment interface for financial transactions, and Google’s payments business has been successful, the sources said.
The Indian government estimates that the total value of goods in the Indian e-commerce market will exceed $55 billion by 2021, growing to $350 billion by the end of the decade.