PhonePe has rebranded its homegrown app marketplace, Indus Appstore, as PhonePe Appstore, as it expands into the digital goods and services market, YourStory reported on 28 October 2026. The platform is available on more than 200 million devices through original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partnerships.
From apps to digital goods
Alongside apps and games, users can access gift cards and digital top-ups, with gaming top-ups scheduled to launch first. PhonePe has also introduced phonepeappstore.com, a webstore for discovering and purchasing digital products through browsers.
Its top markets are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Karnataka and Telangana, according to YourStory's roundup. The platform aims to offer developers alternative distribution and monetisation opportunities through payments, advertising and digital sales.
For India's app economy, the rebrand matters because distribution is the bottleneck: a store pre-installed on 200 million devices, backed by a payments giant, gives developers a channel outside the two dominant global app stores — and gives PhonePe a storefront for the digital goods it already sells through payments.
Why it matters for founders
Distribution beats discovery: PhonePe is turning an app store into a digital-goods storefront on hardware it already reaches. Founders building consumer apps should watch what this means for acquisition costs — an Indian store with payments, advertising and web distribution built in is a new route to users, not just a new name.