WhatsApp on Wednesday said it expects to facilitate the purchase of "affordable sachet-sized" health insurance through its platform by the end of the year as part of its efforts to provide users in India with greater access to financial solutions. The Facebook-owned company noted that its 'Payments' feature is now available to users across the country (currently up to 20 million users) with support from banking partners - State Bank of India, HDFC, ICICI and Axis Bank.
'"We want to get the learnings from Flipkart and take it to other parts of the world," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon was quoted as saying.' 'That is a very large tuition fee for an MBA in a country that outdoes Brazil and perhaps even China in busting multinationals' knees and sometimes their heads as they try to crack a market of mostly impoverished people run by a government that has never really given up the sadistic pleasures of administering the license raj,' notes Rahul Jacob.
The mind block against online education is crumbling and the demand may be led not just by parents but also teachers.
Mukesh Ambani-owned RIL's JioMart is set to launch a slew of new products including financial services, electronics to airline tickets to take on the competition from upcoming rivals like the Tata Super app and other established players including PayTM, Amazon and Flipkart. This comes at a time when RIL's e-commerce revenues are set to grow by 35 per cent to $15 billion within four years and its core retail revenue is expected to grow at the same pace to $44 billion, as per a forecast by Goldman Sachs. "The Tata vs JioMart war will be the next big corporate battle to watch. "While Tata has an upper hand like in-house products and brands, RIL has the backing of global biggies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft," said head of a rating firm asking not to be quoted.
Both Indian firms have been in talks with investors for nearly a year to raise fresh funds of as much as $ 1 billion, but with little success so far.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Friday backed the proposed data privacy and cryptocurrency bills, saying India is putting in place the most forward-looking policies and regulations. Ambani, who has been a votary of Indians owning and controlling their own data and the nation drafting strict rules around how digital information is stored and shared, said nations have the right to build and protect strategic digital infrastructure. Stating that data is the 'new oil', he said every citizen's right to privacy has to be safeguarded. "India is putting in place the most forward-looking policies and regulations," he said at the Infinity Forum, hosted by International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).
While Flipkart and Amazon go on a fund-raising spree, the real battle will begin once big industrial houses such as the Tatas, Reliance and the Aditya Birla group join the race.
The proposed policy is increasingly becoming an item of negotiation, as the US pushes hard to change India's stance.
Alnoor Peermohamed & Raghu Krishnan find out why the new CEO is said to be the perfect man for turning around Flipkart's fortunes.
Over the last 12 months, thanks to bold bets by venture capital firms like Sequoia, SoftBank Vision Fund, and foreign strategic investors like Naspers, pipeline of start-ups with potential to achieve $1 bn in valuation is at an all-time high.
'For how long can investors fund loss-making companies?'
The e-commerce industry is expected to return to high growth next year as large players such as Amazon, Flipkart and Paytm Mall begin to look beyond the 20 million customers who shop online on a monthly basis.
'Facebook and Google no longer need to have infantry regiments and cavalry like the East India Company because they are inside everyone's phones listening to our conversations.'
The market is abuzz with the talk of Snapdeal raising up to $600 million (Rs 3,600 crore) with new investors such as Japan's Softbank and Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten.
While festive season spends by consumers did contribute to the uptick seen in Q3, experts said greater aggression displayed by retailers to corner a larger share of the shopper's wallet also worked.
If Indian storytelling can deliver, it can make the entertainment industry an engine of economic growth and a substantial contributor to GDP, says Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.
The new deal will value Flipkart at close to $19 billion on the secondary market, a huge jump from Walmart's initial offer to investors.
From using Artificial Learning to Machine Learning to deploying drones food delivery platforms are going all out to reach the extra consumer, says Peerzada Abrar.
Fewer e-commerce companies hired candidates from B-schools this year.
The e-commerce companies believe the government is using this exercise to take an unauthorised look into their financials, shareholding and operations.
'The BJP has shown signs lately of returning to its trader mindset.' 'Several strong emotions get meshed in this: Nationalism, protectionism, mercantilism, and arrogance,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
The threat may be a decade away, but it has brick-and-mortar sellers rethinking their strategies and banking on the govt to regulate online companies.
India's tech start-ups are following Silicon Valley's lead and embracing the "fail fast" culture.
The proposed e-commerce rule book issued recently by the ministry of consumer affairs does not mention foreign companies or foreign direct investment (FDI) at any place, unlike most other government guidelines for the sector so far. That is a heartening development since the latest proposals could be fine-tuned as e-commerce policy.
A combination of bank guarantees, letters of credit, buyer's credit for computer servers have been provided to the two local operational arms by Kotak Mahindra Bank and Deutsche Bank.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has started a limited test use of WhatsApp to connect customers to grocery stores, days after Facebook decided to invest USD 5.7 billion in digital assets controlled by the company. JioMart, an e-commerce venture of Reliance Retail, "has already started interacting with customers on WhatsApp for grocery orders" in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan, Credit Suisse said in a report.
As per market estimates, the new round would value the city-based firm at about $ 4-5 billion.
This year's list includes 40 influential people under 40 years of age in five categories -- finance, technology, healthcare, government and politics, and media and entertainment.
In the past eight months, Flipkart has seen the exits of Mukesh Bansal, considered the right hand man of Sachin and Binny Bansal; Ankit Nagori, chief business officer; Punit Soni, Flipkart's million-dollar hire from Silicon Valley who headed product and strategy; and Manish Maheshwari, head of the seller business
The Walmart chief stated that the values of the two companies were "very much aligned"
The iconic British brand acquired by Unilever in 2009 from American major Sara Lee, is attempting to get a new image with actors Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan.
If bank and service provider are not compliant, pay manually, or give standing instruction linked to bank a/c, suggests Bindisha Sarang.
Anurag Kashyap's classic Black Friday is a must watch film.
'While high-level interventions may help smoothen inter-State relationships, they cannot fundamentally change the alchemy of such relationships, which are firmly rooted in mutual benefits and mutual interests,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
First phase of online video's growth is over. Netflix, Amazon developing new content ecosystem.
The move comes at a time when Snapdeal is aggressively looking at optimising costs amid intense battle with Flipkart and Amazon.
The big boys of India's traditional retail have finally come together to fight the onslaught of their online counterparts.
India Inc has few leaders who are likely to grab headlines in 2015.
In spite of the mega IPO of Alibaba, Flipkart-Myntra is not thinking of a public offering at this point
This is the sixth consecutive markdown in the valuation of Flipkart by the US firm.
