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TechCrunch
6 minutes ago
- TechCrunch
Google proposes to open Play Store to more real-money games in India
Google has proposed sweeping changes to its Play Store and advertising policies in India, aiming to allow more real-money gaming apps onto its platforms in a bid to settle an ongoing antitrust case with a local online gaming platform WinZO. On Wednesday, India's competition watchdog issued a public notice (PDF) inviting comments on a 'commitment proposal' from Google, offering to expand access to its Play Store and advertising policy for more real-money gaming apps in the South Asian market. Google proposed to replace its current pilot program by allowing the distribution of all real-money games in the country, which are 'self-declared by developers as permissible online real-money games as per applicable laws/jurisprudence' on Google Play in the country. However the developers are also required to submit proof that an authoritative third-party body has declared the app to be a 'game of skill,' the company proposed. In September 2022, Google launched a pilot program to allow daily fantasy sports and rummy games on its Play Store in India. The move came after a 2021 ruling by India's Supreme Court that categorized fantasy sports as 'games of skill' rather than gambling — and therefore 'legal.' Shortly after the pilot launched, online gaming platform WinZO filed a complaint with India's antitrust watchdog, calling the program discriminatory for excluding other real-money games. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) took up the case and, in November that year, ordered a formal probe into Google's policies for real-money gaming apps. In January last year, Google announced it would expand support for real-money gaming apps on the Play Store in India, Brazil, and Mexico. However, the company paused that rollout in June and stated it would continue to allow apps already included in the 2022 India pilot to remain on the platform. 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San Francisco | REGISTER NOW Alongside offering to expand its Play Store for all real-money games self-declared by developers, Google proposed to update its Developer Program Policies to reflect the update. The company also stated that it would finalize an 'appropriate business model' for real-money game developers. Similarly, Google has proposed to allow 'games of skill' to be advertised in India where the app maker provides proof by a third-party that it is a game of skill and not gambling. The recognized third parties in this case could even be industry associations such as the All India Gaming Federation, E-Gaming Federation, or the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports. Google said it would begin allowing compliant real-money games on its Play Store in India within 120 days of the CCI's approval, while related ad policy changes would take effect within 150 days of the regulator's order. 'We're pleased the CCI is market testing our proposed framework for real-money games (RMGs) in India,' a Google spokesperson said in a statement emailed to TechCrunch. 'This development reflects our constructive discussions with the CCI and the Indian developer community along with our commitment to building a more open and safe ecosystem for RMG apps across Google Play and Google Ads.' Notably, the proposal, if it is accepted by the CCI after public feedback, would benefit Google, which stands to earn a share of revenue from a broader range of real-money gaming apps and their ads on its platforms. Real-money gaming dominates India's online gaming market, accounting for nearly 86% of total industry revenue — ₹274.38 billion ($3 billion) in 2024 — per a joint report by WinZO and the Interactive Entertainment and Innovation Council (IEIC) released earlier this year. However, its share is expected to decline slightly to 80% by 2029, as non-real-money games grow in popularity and the overall market expands to ₹785.51 billion ($8.9 billion). Google's latest proposal could also offer a boost to developers currently distributing their apps outside the Play Store — including via APK files on their own websites. However, the CCI's investigation is still ongoing, and the regulator has yet to determine whether Google engaged in discriminatory practices in this space. The probe adds to a growing list of antitrust challenges for Google in India, where the U.S.-headquartered tech giant has already been fined for allegedly abusing its dominance through Android and the Play Store. The company recently approached the Supreme Court to appeal one of these rulings and contest the CCI's findings. The case is expected to be listed for hearing next month. 'We look forward to continuing to work with the CCI and the wider RMG ecosystem, and are confident our proposed framework will empower Indian developers, grow the digital economy, and prioritize user safety,' Google's spokesperson said.
Geek Wire
6 minutes ago
- Geek Wire
F5 stock rises 8% as quarterly revenue grows 12% to $780M
Shares of F5 were up more than 8% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the Seattle-based security and application delivery giant topped estimates for its fiscal third quarter. Revenue was up 12% to $780 million while GAAP net income was $190 million, up from $144 million. 'Customers are modernizing their data centers, adopting hybrid multicloud architectures, and scaling to meet growing application performance and security needs, including those coming from AI adoption,' F5 CEO François Locoh-Donou said in a statement. F5 raised its guidance for fiscal year 2025 revenue growth, to about 9%, up from prior guidance of 6.5-to-7.5%. F5 released a recent report showing that only 2% of global organizations are 'highly ready to scale AI securely across operations.'
Fast Company
6 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Tech CEOs may point to AI for layoffs, but the reality is complicated
WORK LIFE The last six months of tech layoff emails have often included a nod to AI. Help wanted sign is displayed at a live music and blues club in Chicago, Thursday, July 24, 2025. [Photo: AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh] BY Listen to this Article More info 0:00 / 6:09 If you read the typical 2025 mass layoff notice from a tech industry CEO, you might think that artificial intelligence cost workers their jobs. The reality is more complicated, with companies trying to signal to Wall Street that they're making themselves more efficient as they prepare for broader changes wrought by AI. A new report Wednesday from career website Indeed says tech job postings in July were down 36% from their early 2020 levels, with AI one but not the most obvious factor in stalling a rebound. ChatGPT's debut in late 2022 also corresponded with the end of a pandemic-era hiring binge, making it hard to isolate AI's role in the hiring doldrums that followed. 'We're kind of in this period where the tech job market is weak, but other areas of the job market have also cooled at a similar pace,' said Brendon Bernard, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. 'Tech job postings have actually evolved pretty similarly to the rest of the economy, including relative to job postings where there really isn't that much exposure to AI.' The template for tech CEO layoff notices in 2025 includes an AI pivot That nuance is not always clear from the last six months of tech layoff emails, which often include a nod to AI in addition to expressions of sympathy. When he announced mass layoffs earlier this year, Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach invited employees to consider the bigger picture: 'Companies everywhere are reimagining how work gets done, and the increasing demand for AI has the potential to drive a new era of growth for Workday.' Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost explained that a need to shift resources to 'accelerate investments' in AI was one of the reasons the company had to cut 1,350, or about 9%, of workers. The 'Why We're Doing This' section of CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz's announcement of 5% job cuts said the cybersecurity company needed to double down on AI investments to 'accelerate execution and efficiency.' 'AI flattens our hiring curve, and helps us innovate from idea to product faster,' Kurtz wrote. It's not just U.S. companies. In India, tech giant Tata Consultancy Services recently characterized its 12,000 layoffs, or 2% of its workforce, as part of a shift to a 'Future-Ready organization' that would be realigning its workforce and 'deploying AI at scale for our clients and ourselves.' Even the Japanese parent company of Indeed and Glassdoor has cited an AI shift in its notice of 1,300 layoffs at the job search and workplace review sites. AI spending, not replacement, is a more common factor Microsoft, which is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday, has announced layoffs of about 15,000 workers this year even as its profits have soared. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees last week the layoffs were 'weighing heavily' on him but also positioned them as an opportunity to reimagine the company's mission for an AI era. Promises of a leaner approach have been welcomed on Wall Street, especially from tech giants that are trying to justify huge amounts of capital spending to pay for the data centers, chips and other components required to power AI technology. 'It's this sort of double-edged sword restructuring that I think a lot of tech giants are encountering in this age of AI, where they have to find the right balance between maintaining an appropriate headcount, but also allowing artificial intelligence to come to the forefront,' said Bryan Hayes, a strategist at Zacks Investment Research. Google said last week it would raise its budget for capital expenditures by an additional $10 billion to $85 billion. Microsoft is expected to outline similar guidance soon. The role of AI in job replacement is hard to track One thing is clear to Hayes: Microsoft's job cuts improve its profit margin outlook for the 2026 fiscal year that started in July. But what these broader tech industry layoffs mean for the employment prospects of tech workers can be harder to gauge. 'Will AI replace some of these jobs? Absolutely,' said Hayes. 'But it's also going to create a lot of jobs. Employees that are able to leverage artificial intelligence and help the companies innovate, and create new products and services, are going to be the ones that are in high demand.' He pointed to Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which is on a spree of offering lucrative packages to recruit elite AI scientists from competitors such as OpenAI. The reports published by Indeed on Wednesday show that AI specialists are faring better than standard software engineers, but even those jobs are not where they have been. 'Machine-learning engineers — which is kind of the canonical AI job — those job postings are still noticeably above where they were pre-pandemic, though they've actually come down compared to their 2022 peak,' said Bernard, the Indeed economist. 'They've also been impacted by the cyclical ups and downs of the sector.' Economists are watching for AI's effects on entry-level tech jobs Tech hiring has particularly plunged in AI hubs such as the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Boston and Seattle, according to Indeed. But in looking more closely at which tech workers were least likely to get hired, Indeed found the deepest impact on entry-level jobs in the tech industry, with those with at least five years of experience faring better. The hiring declines were sharpest in entry-level tech industry jobs that involve marketing, administrative assistance and human resources, which all involve tasks that overlap with the strength of the latest generative AI tools that can help create documents and images. 'The plunge in tech hiring started before the new AI age, but the shifting experience requirements is something that happened a bit more recently,' Bernard said. —Matt O'Brien, AP technology writer
