Amazon Alexa Skill Developers Can Now Start Making Money in India

Amazon’s Alexa skills are compatible with Echo smart speakers, and users in India get over 20,000 skills to use.

Amazon is finally giving voice apps developers in India a chance to make money by creating voice skills that are likely to hit it off with consumers.

The company has started its Developer Rewards Program in the country, which has been previously available for developers in countries like the US, UK and Japan among others.

The reward will be given to developers who’re making voice skills eligible for the program. Rewards have been crucial for success of apps on Android and iOS, which has flourished with high number of users across the world.

With voice becoming the next big thing in the consumer world, Amazon’s rewards will work as a motivation for developers, now in India as well.

The company claims that users of Echo speakers in India can access more than 20,000 voice skills, and these numbers are likely to catch developer’s monetary interest as well.

Speaking of money, Amazon hasn’t exactly revealed how much a developer stands to make in India, but looking at its rewards ranging from $100 (Rs 7,100 approx) to Rs 1,500 (Rs 1,06,500 approx) for developers in US, we’d expect the value in sync with developers rates in the country.

Eligible Skill Categories for Rewards Program:

Education & Reference
Food & Drink
Games, Trivia & Accessories
Kids
Health & Fitness
Lifestyle
Music & Audio
Productivity

The value of reward is directly related to how popular the skills becomes on the platform, and how many people are downloading for their smart speakers. Amazon has listed out the process for developers who’re eligible for rewards. First up, the developer will receive an email from the Alexa team.

The email will cover the next steps for registration and payment account setup. But developers must make sure their country/region is correctly set to India on the Amazon Developer portal.

Amazon, compared to its competition Google, has been proactive with efforts to build its base for the voice ecosystem in India. Rewards is just another first-mover advantage, that’ll help the company in getting more popular skills working on its Echo devices. Google is yet to kick start monetising efforts for developers in the country but it’s high time they do.