Google recently reduced the price of Google Maps for Indian developers by 70%. Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal took to X to mock Google for announcing the price cut by 70% for Indian developers, and said the announcement is ‘too little too late’.
Aggarwal posted an image attachment of the announcement by the Google Maps app which wrote, “Starting August 1, 2024, we will introduce new updates, including reduced pricing for our core services to make Google Maps Platform more accessible to developers in India, and will accept payments in Indian Rupees (INR).”
The official announcement, although, was made by Google at its developer event in Bengaluru, on July 17.
Ola's CEO responded with a dig and called for Google Maps to ouster from the country.
Ola CEO reposted, “ Dear @Google, too little too late!
Reducing prices for @googlemaps, “offering to price in ₹” after #ExitGoogleMaps. Don’t need your fake generosity!
Tomorrow, I’ll be writing a blog response and announcing major updates on Ola maps @Krutrim. Stay tuned! ”
The Google Maps announcement came a week after Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal gave one year of free access and ₹100 crore worth of free credits to his locally-developed Ola Maps for all Indian developers.
How Google’s Price Change Affects Ola?
Google is giving a 90% discount to developers working with the state-owned Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform,
The new prices will come into effect from August 1.
Google is also discontinuing accepting payments in dollars and is now introducing the option for Indian developers to pay for Google Maps subscriptions in Rupees.
Social Media Reaction:
Online users have shown a mixed reaction to Aggarwal's post.
One user wrote, "When you reduce the price for the product is fair and alright when they have done it, you call it Fake? Doglapan, isn't it?"
Another user commented, "You were using @googlemaps earlier. Now that you have your own OlaMaps, you started abusing @Google. This isn’t a roght sprite or very cheap show of professionalism."
A third user replied, "How is this fake generosity? You do know right the CEO of Google is an Indian? He is offering a better product, with better services 10 times better than Ola maps."
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