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Kishore Biyani Looks for an Opportunity to Create an Indian Amazon/Alibaba

27Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

Kishore Biyani Looks for an Opportunity to Create an Indian Amazon/Alibaba

The founder of Future Group Kishore Biryani is looking forward to grab the opportunity to build an Indian Amazon or Alibaba. This has come up after the government has banned online marketplaces from selling products by companies in which they hold stakes and also curbed exclusive marketing arrangements that could influence product prices. “It’s a game-changer for us. This is not really a policy but more of a clarification and every retailer will have to adhere to it. They can’t build brands now,” said Biyani. Biyani, who’s never made a secret of his disdain for e-commerce rivals for their predatory pricing, said most online companies will have to contend with being just a marketplace that connects buyers and sellers through technology. “There was no chance we could have...

Amazon adds “Tens of Millions” of New Prime Subscribers on its Platform

27Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Tech

Amazon adds “Tens of Millions” of New Prime Subscribers on its Platform

Amazon has announced that it added “tens of millions” of people who signed up for Prime memberships, both paid and on a trial basis. Its worldwide customers also shopped and ordered more items than ever before, including “millions more Amazon devices” compared with this time last year. The device best-sellers, as on Black Friday, again included Amazon Echo speakers and Fire TV. Specifically, Amazon said its top devices sold over the holidays were the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick 4K and the Echo. Millions of Fire TV devices, Fire tablets and Kindle devices were also sold. Smart home devices sold in record numbers as well, with best sellers including Amazon Smart Plug, Ring Video Doorbell 2, TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug Mini Outlet and the iRobot Roomba 690. The lower-cost Echo Dot has...

Google to Invest $1 Billion on New Campus in New York

18Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Google to Invest $1 Billion on New Campus in New York

Alphabet owned Google is investing more than $1 billion on a new campus in New York. With this, it will becom the second major technology company after Amazon to pick America's financial capital to expand and create thousands of jobs. The 1.7 million square-foot campus, called Google Hudson Square, will include leased properties at Hudson Street and Washington Street, the company said in a blog post on Monday. The new campus will be the main location for Google's advertising sales division, the Global Business Organization. Google hopes to start moving into two Hudson Street buildings by 2020, followed by a Washington Street in 2022 and will have the capacity to more than double its New York headcount, currently more than 7,000, in the next 10 years. The company's plans...

10Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments

INDIA

Amazon Launches Social Commerce Platform Spark in India

Thee-commerce major Amazon has reportedly launched its socialcommerce platform Spark in India after about a month of betatesting. Spark is part of the Amazon.in site and is a place to discover things from people who share yourinterests. In Spark, you will first be prompted to select a few interests. This development comes at a time when Facebook and Instagram also plan to get a pie of the growing e-commerce market in India. Under this, Amazon will create a feed of personalised content from other Amazon customers with similar interests. And if you like a product in, say, a photo that you see, you can tap on the product link to buy it. You can even interact with people by commenting on their posts. This will enable the users to shop and also makes it...

AWS Launches a Machine Learning Tool Amazon Forecast

29Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Tech

AWS Launches a Machine Learning Tool Amazon Forecast

Amazon’s cloud computing services known as the Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched a new pre-built machine learning tool that will make it easier for developers to generate predictions based on time-series data. The new service will be called Amazon Forecast. Amazon has built a number of models to handle its own data in its retail business and this one is essentially the same technology that Amazon uses to forecast demand on its retail site. Under this, the users provide the company with all of their supply chain data and then give the service the variables that could have impact on the forecast. “With just three clicks, you can give us the information and get a forecast,” AWS CEO Andy Jassy said. “It’s super simple and when we benchmarked with customers in the private beta and o...

Amazon in Talks to Buy out Kishore Biyani’s Future Group

27Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Amazon in Talks to Buy out Kishore Biyani’s Future Group

Future Group’s founder Kishore Biyani is negotiating an agreement with Amazon that will offer the company the option to buy him out in the future. Both sides are drafting a call and put option in their share purchase agreement that will allow Amazon to call for Biyani’s stake in flagship Future Retail Limited (FRL) over the long term, possibly as much as 8-10 years, subject to Indian laws. FRL operates all food and grocery stores such as Big Bazaar, Easy Day and Nilgiris. Biyani and Amazon are close to finalising the first leg of their agreement wherein the Seattle-headquartered retailer will buy up to 9.5% stake in FRL through the foreign portfolio investor (FPI) route. As promoters, Biyani and his family members own 46.51% of the company, of which 40.3% is pledged as per September ...

Amazon Introduces Skype Calling to its Echo Devices

20Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Tech

Amazon Introduces Skype Calling to its Echo Devices

Amazon has introduced a new feature to its device Alexa, and now, it would be able to even make Skype calls. Your Echo/Plus/Dot, et al. will be able to do so via voice using a command like, “Alexa Skype Mom.” Echos with displays, meanwhile, will offer up the full video Skype experience. Users can also ask Alexa to dial a phone number via Skype. It’s a solid partnership for the two companies. Amazon could use better chat support and Microsoft hasn’t made much headway with Cortana-enabled devices. This is also a bit of a blow for Facebook, whose Portal devices are built almost entirely around the idea of offering a standalone home product for video chat. That’s the best and practically only killer app on Facebook’s offering at present. The feature can be set up through the Alexa ...

Amazon Partners Apple to Sell New Devices in India & other markets

10Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Amazon Partners Apple to Sell New Devices in India & other markets

Amazon has struck a deal with Apple to directly start selling more Apple products in India and other markets like United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan among others. In the coming weeks, Amazon will start offering the latest editions of Apple's iPhone, iPad and other devices like Beats headphones in these markets. The online retail giant will however not offer Apple's HomePod smart speaker, that directly competes with Amazon Echo. CNET was first to report this deal. "We're working with Amazon to improve the experience for Apple customers on their site and we look forward to those customers having another great way to buy iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and more," Apple said in a statement. Apple had earlier struck a deal with Amazon rival Flipkart and Infibeam to...

10Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

INDIA

Online Sale of Smartphones in India to Cross 50 Million Mark

The online sales of smartphone in India got a hype during the festive season sale on various e-commerce platforms and thus, it is all set to cross the 50 million mark in a year for the first time ever in 2018. The year was driven by discounts, buy-back offers and easy financing options offered by retailers such as Flipkart and Amazon and others especially at the time of the festive season. Research firm CMR estimated that online sales in the fourth quarter of 2018 will increase 60-65% year-on-year and on the other hand, sales in bricks-and-mortar stores are likely to fall 4-6%. Counterpoint Research has projected a 51% increase in online sales and 11% for offline. “With the onset of festival season, more smartphone vendors in partnership with e-commerce players are offering discount...

Retail Giant Amazon in Advanced talks to Open HQ2 in Virginia

5Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

Retail Giant Amazon in Advanced talks to Open HQ2 in Virginia

The retail giant Amazon is in advanced talks with Crystal City, a neighborhood in North Virginia that lies just south of the Washington D.C. to open its second headquarter in Virginia. Those conversations are reportedly further along and more detailed than any of the other Amazon has had with fellow top contenders. Nearby metro stops and proximity to a major airport are all requirements that are fulfilled by Crystal City. A local top real estate developer has apparently unlisted some of its buildings in the past month, in anticipation of an announcement. Buildings for the initial move of hundreds of employees could be occupied by Amazon employees within nine months. No specifics on when exactly the announcement would arrive, though the paper notes that it’s being held until after ...

Know more About the Newly Launched OnePlus 6T, Sale Starts Today

1Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Tech

Know more About the Newly Launched OnePlus 6T, Sale Starts Today

The all-new OnePlus 6T, the mid-cycle upgrade to OnePlus 6 has been launched in India at a starting price of Rs 37,999 and its sale starts today that is from November 1. OnePlus 6T will be an Amazon exclusive in India, just like previous OnePlus phones. The buyers will be available to purchase the phone exclusively from Amazon India store and also OnePlus' official online retail store. OnePlus 6T made its global debut a day before, on October 29 at an event in New York. Now, it is officially available in India. In India, OnePlus 6T is available in three models. The website is also providing launch offers from Kindle, Kotak and Reliance Jio are listed as well. People who purchase OnePlus 6T will only have to pay 6 per cent for any Kindle eBook and get a discoun...

Microsoft Surpasses Amazon to Take the Spot of Second Most Valuable US Company

27Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

USA

Microsoft Surpasses Amazon to Take the Spot of Second Most Valuable US Company

The software giant Microsoft has reportedly reacquired its position as the second most valuable US company on Friday. This happened after Amazon showed a disappointing quarterly report as the company wiped $65 billion off the online retailer's market capitalization. The company that tops the list is Apple with over $1 trillion after crossing that threshold in September. Microsoft's market capitalization was Wall Street's highest in late 1998 through early 2000 before the dot-com bubble burst. The shares of Amazon reduced 7%, the most in nearly three years after its holiday season sales outlook missed targets. Microsoft fell a more modest 2% in a broad technology sell-off that was also driven by a weaker-than-expected report from Google-parent Alphabet, leaving the Nasdaq down 2.1% at...