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Alibaba Launches its Second Availability Zone in India

29Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

CHINA

Alibaba Launches its Second Availability Zone in India

The cloud computing arm of the Alibaba Group has reportedly launched its second availability zone in Indian city Mumbai. The company stated that this freshly built zone will complement the first availability zone that was opened in January this year. This will provide products such as Elastic Computing, Storage, Database, Network, Application Services and Big Data Analytics to offer services according to the requirements of local governments and enterprises. This move has been the part of Alibaba’s strategy for the purpose of expanding its global existence to provide services to a growing client base meanwhile targeting new local customers. Alibaba Cloud at present has 50 availability zones across 18 economic centres across the globe, with coverage extending across mainland China,...

San-Francisco based Pinterest Prepping up for Global Expansion

26Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

San-Francisco based Pinterest Prepping up for Global Expansion

San-Francisco based web and mobile application Pinterest is looking forward for global expansion and is eyeing India and Southeast Asia next. The USA unicorn valued at over $12 billion allows users to create virtual pinboards and discover information on the World Wide Web. The platform currently claims to have 250 million monthly active users, half of them outside the US. Almost 80% of the company’s new users are from international markets. “Last few years, we have focused on South America, Western Europe and a bit on Japan. This year we are increasingly thinking about Southeast Asia, India and other parts of the world we haven’t serviced,” co-founder Evan Sharp stated. Pinterest has launched seven offices in international markets. Along with this, it had also introduced the Hindi lan...

Indian Hotel Chain Oyo Raises $1 billion at $5 billion Valuation

25Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

Indian Hotel Chain Oyo Raises $1 billion at $5 billion Valuation

Indian hospitality chain Oyo Hotels which is soaring high with success these days has planned to secured funds amounting to $1 billion for the purpose of expansion into China and other global regions. This round is expected to be led by existing investors including SoftBank Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The existing investors have currently put in $800 million, with commitments for another $200 million. About $600 million of the total will be deployed into China where Oyo had forayed just 10 months back. “With this additional funding, we plan to rapidly scale our business in these countries, while continuing to invest further in technology and talent,” Agarwal stated. “We will also deploy fresh capital to take our unique model that enables small hotel ow...

Dubai-based Careem Buys Tech & Talent of Indian Bus-shuttle Platform

25Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

ACQUISITION, MIDDLE EAST

Dubai-based Careem Buys Tech & Talent of Indian Bus-shuttle Platform

Dubai-based ride-hailing company Careem has acquired a part of Indian bus-shuttle service platform called Commut. The amount of the deal is yet not disclosed and with this, the company is looking to expand to mass transport across 100 cities. Following the acquisition, Careem will take over Commut's talent and technology. Founded in 2015 by six IIIT-Hyderabad graduates, Commut claims to have served over 70,000 customers and onboarded 400 driver-partners. "We are always looking to invest in new technologies and high-calibre people to help solve complex local problems. And mass transportation is one of the biggest issues facing cities in the Greater Middle East," Careem stated. "Improving the quality and availability of mass transportation will help to create affordable transport option...

21Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

INDIA

India Finally Rolls Out the ‘Desi’ GPS Module Based on IRNSS

We all have been hearing a lot about the ‘desi’ GPS module ever since last year and finally, it has been rolled out and has become a reality. At a recent event in New Delhi, ST Microelectronics and MobileTek launched UTraQ which is a GPS module based on India Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) to track locations. As of now, the GPS-based applications in electronic devices were based on the feed given by the US satellites, but UTraQ will be based on India’s own satellite system that would give much more accurate and reliable location information. India has launched two GPS modules that include the L110 GNSS and the L100 GNSS. UTraQ L110 GNSS and L100 GNSS are manufactured by ST Microelectronics and is being distributed in India by Rama Krishna Electro Pvt. Ltd. L110 GNSS ...

Google Pay Crosses 25 Million Monthly Active Users in India

19Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Tech

Google Pay Crosses 25 Million Monthly Active Users in India

The digital payments platform that was recently rebranded from Tez to Google Pay by the technology giant Google has crossed the milestone of 25 million monthly active users who have in total carried out about 860 million transactions over the past year. Recalling the progressive one year since the launch of Google’s payment offering in India, Caesar Sengupta who is the vice president for payments in the company stated that the app has seen widespread adoption from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu to Mandvi in Gujarat and Dimapur in Nagaland. “You are using Google Pay for your bills, your rent, the chaiwallah, the plumber and even your bus rides,” Sengupta said. Google claimed about 1.2 million businesses in India have adopted its payment platform as their preferred mode of payment. Google Pa...

After UK and Australia, Ola is all set to Enter New Zealand

18Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

After UK and Australia, Ola is all set to Enter New Zealand

The homegrown cab aggregator Ola has been on an expansion spree lately and is expanding itself in various international regions including UK and Australia. Soon after this, the company announced its plans to enter the New Zealand market starting with Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. However, the date of launch has not been mentioned as of now. With this announcement, New Zealand becomes the third international market that Ola will enter into this year after rolling out its services in Australia in February and UK in August. For this purpose, the company has appointed Brian Dewil as Country Manager for New Zealand. “I’m excited to build the local team and business in New Zealand and provide a healthy contribution to the nation’s local mobility infrastructure”, said Brian Dewil, Co...

UberEats Partners With General Insurance Provider Tata AIG

17Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

UberEats Partners With General Insurance Provider Tata AIG

Food delivery platform UberEats has tied up with general insurance provider Tata AIG for the purpose of offering comprehensive insurance covers for its delivery executives in India. The particular programme will provide insurance to the executives for up to Rs 5 lakh against accidental death and permanent disability, applicable when they are on the road delivering orders for UberEats. Along with this, the policy also offers a cover of Rs 2 lakh against hospitalization expenses and an outpatient cover of Rs 50,000 per delivery agent. “While the programme currently offers accidental insurance, we are thinking of extending it to areas relating to life and medical insurance... We are also running small pilots to negotiate term policies for agents in their individual capacity, at attractive...

Tech Giant Cisco Plans to Step Up Investment in India

15Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Tech Giant Cisco Plans to Step Up Investment in India

One of the biggest technology companies Cisco has announced that it is stepping up investments in the Indian market. This is being done as part of the second phase of its 'Country Digital Acceleration' (CDA) programme. With this, the company will focus on accelerating innovation and entrepreneurship, 5G use cases for citizen services as well as transportation modernization. Cisco claims that India is among its few markets where the company has made the second round of investment as part of its CDA programme. "India is an important market for us. While we are not disclosing the amount we would be investing, it is clear that we are betting on India as a key market. We are adding four more states to our existing initiatives towards areas like innovation, smart cities. We have also signed ...

14Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

INDIA

India Launches pan-Africa Digital Knowledge & Health Network

India has launched a pan-Africa digital knowledge and health network with an aim of establishing its leadership role in an area where China has not ventured till now. The five-year project was unveiled by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. Under this project, the basic motive is to offer free tele education courses in various academic disciplines to over 4,000 students annually from African countries. Also, it will help to offer free continuing medical education to 1,000 candidates comprising African doctors, nurses and paramedical staff. Inaugurating the project, Sudhma Swaraj stated, “Over the years we have built several bridges with Africa…. Today, we are here to build a bridge which is no less important – the bridge of knowledge and health between India and Africa…. India’s ...

14Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Video Streaming Platform HOOQ to Double India Investments

Video-on-demand streaming service HOOQ based in Singapore is doubling its India investments and has changed strategy to focus on Hollywood and English premium video content. This is basically being done to take on Netflix and Amazon prime, and drive growth in India’s highly competitive over-the-top (OTT) video market. “We are doubling up on our investments for India. We are investing in content, manpower as well as technology,” Zulfiqar Khan, managing director at HOOQ India stated. On the new strategy, Hooq will narrow its focus on Hollywood and English premium content, and it has started phasing out regional and Hindi content. India is expected to be among the top 10 OTT video markets in the world in four years. HOOQ will continue its Rs 89 monthly plan. Khan said Hooq’s content p...

Xiaomi to Launch a Smartwatch and Fitness Tracker in India

13Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

Xiaomi to Launch a Smartwatch and Fitness Tracker in India

Soon after the launch of a smartphone in the premium segment, Xiaomi is all set to give a tough competition and has launched a smartwatch and a fitness tracker in India with its wearable sub-brand Huami. A new teaser is been discovered which suggests that Huami is planning to start the sale of these new smartwatches this year in September. The particular teaser also highlights that the company has collaborated with Avengers: Infinity War and it might launch a special edition of the smartwatch as well. It is being expected that the company is scheduling the launch of the smartwatch with the China release of the film. Lately, the company introduced Amazfit Pace and Amazfit Cor wearables in India. The Amazfit Pace is basically a smartwatch and is priced at Rs 9,999, on the other hand...