Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Homegrown digital payment companies PhonePe and Paytm plan to spend a combined Rs 2,000 crore on marketing this year, as they look to increase awareness, credibility and promote products to a wider consumer audience, top executives at these firms said. While PhonePe has earmarked Rs 800 crore for marketing, Paytm plans to […]

By Pavel Alpeyev and Takahiko Hyuga Last March, months before the meltdown at WeWork, Masayoshi Son worked through the prospects for another one of his favorite portfolio companies — a startup from India called Oyo. In a spacious conference hall at his Tokyo headquarters, the Japanese billionaire huddled with lieutenants from the startup and his […]

Tech giant Google on Monday said it has decided to wind down its ‘Station’ programme globally through 2020, including in India, given that going online has become much easier and cheaper over the last five years. The US-based company said it is working with its partners to transition existing sites so they can remain useful […]

Twenty-one Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates in the Delhi state election raised campaign funds through online crowdfunding platform ourdemocracy.in, with as many as 18 of them winning. The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP swept the February 8 poll, winning 62 out of 70 seats. Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Atishi Marlena, Gopal Rai, Saurabh Bhardwaj and Sanjeev […]

Sometime in 2019, India overtook the US to become the second largest smartphone market in the world, after China. Of the 158 million units shipped (meaning made available in the Indian market), around 114 million, or 72%, were Chinese brands, said Counterpoint Research. Xiaomi led the pack, with Vivo, Realme and Oppo figuring among the […]

Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart are among online retailers demanding that India scale back a proposed tax on third-party sellers on their platforms, saying the burden of compliance will hurt the fledgling industry, according to documents seen by Reuters. The online retail industry is braced for a possible 1% tax on each sale made by sellers […]

Jessica Posner Odede Jessica Posner Odede is CEO of Girl Effect, an international NGO working with adolescent girls, using digital technology. Speaking to Times Evoke, Odede discussed the challenges rural girls face globally, using social media to distribute life-altering information — and why corporates should back the efforts of girls going digital: How did Girl […]

Google is in discussions on deals to pay media organizations for content, a move aimed at blunting criticism that it unfairly profits from copyrighted news, according to people familiar with the talks. Negotiations between the internet giant and news outlets were said to be in the early stages, with most of the publishers located in […]

Facebook said on Friday it was allowing U.S.-based political candidates to run branded content on its social networking platforms, but the content would not be cataloged in its advertising library. Political campaigns and groups can now use the social media company’s branded content tool, which allows influencers to more clearly tag in an official sub-header […]

Kids Learning And You (KLAY) Schools, a chain of non-franchised pre-schools and daycare centres, launched a content platform for parents on Friday. The platform, which is called That Parent Thing, will provide knowledge and experiences from experts and parents across a variety of subjects including work and life. The experts will include a speech therapist, […]