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Facebook Tests Its Features To Monetise WhatsApp

6Sep By reutersNo Comments

Tech

Facebook Tests Its Features To Monetise WhatsApp

Facebook Inc is gearing up to make money from WhatsApp, the messaging service used by more than a billion people every day, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. WhatsApp is testing features that would allow businesses to chat with their clients on the app, according to the report. It has started a pilot program that would feature a green badge next to a business contact, indicating that the business was verified by the messaging service, the WSJ reported. “We do intend on charging businesses in the future,” Chief Operating Officer Matt Idema told the Journal in an interview. Started in 2009, WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook for an eye-popping $22 billion in 2014. While WhatsApp had little revenue at the time of the deal, the purchase price was slightly more than the market...

Hike Messenger Acqui-Hires Media Streaming Device Teewe Maker Creo

12Aug By AnkitaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Hike Messenger Acqui-Hires Media Streaming Device Teewe Maker Creo

Hike Messenger, the messaging app founded by Kavin Mittal, son of Bharti Airtel founder Sunil Bharti Mittal, has acqui-hired Creo, a Bangalore based tech-startup. The startup is known for making TeeWe, an HDMI based video streaming device. Hike Messenger, which is operated by Bharti SoftBank Holdings Pte. Ltd. (more…)

Facebook Acquires Artificial Intelligence Startup Ozlo For Messnger

1Aug By RishabhNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Facebook Acquires Artificial Intelligence Startup Ozlo For Messnger

Facebook has recently acquired its former Head of Platform for Android, Charles Jolley's conversational AI Startup Ozlo. The Ozlo team is expected to join Facebook to work on natural language processing challenges. Ozlo will be working with Facebook on building experience powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning in blog post shown below. The four-year-old start-up claims that its virtual assistants can understand and provide answers to questions which do not have simple "yes" or "no" answers. Ozlo launched with a consumer-facing app in Oct. 2016 and with this acquisition it is no longer independent and the conversational AI space grows just a bit more consolidated. “1.2 billion people around the world use Messenger to connect with the people and businesses the...

Indians Make 50 Million Per Minute Whatsapp Video Calls Daily

8May By AdityaNo Comments

News

Indians Make 50 Million Per Minute Whatsapp Video Calls Daily

Indians make 50 million minutes of video calls daily via WhatsApp, the highest compared to users in any other part of the globe. WhatsApp, a popular messaging app that competes with the likes of Hike, Googles Allo and Viber in India, started offering video calling feature in November last year. The video calling feature also pitched WhatsApp against popular video calling apps like Microsoft Skype, Apples FaceTime and Google Duo. Since then, it has seen a steady growth in usage. One of the driving factors has been falling data prices and free promotional data by new comer, Reliance Jio. As per data shared by WhatsApp, India is the top country for video calling minutes with over 50 million video calling minutes per day. Globally, users make over 55 million video calls per day,...

Hike Messenger Launched Video Calling Feature

26Oct By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Hike Messenger Launched Video Calling Feature

India’s home grown messaging platform, Hike Messenger, has launched video calling feature on its app. Video calling, the beta of which was rolled out in September this year to a select set of less than a hundred thousand, will now begin to roll out to the entire userbase starting with Android users this week. Live Caller Preview is another interesting aspect of video calling on Hike. This allows the user to see a live video preview of the caller before answering the call. Hike video calling is available immediately on Android. If users updated their Hike Messenger in September this year, video calling would have automatically been enabled for them and will now be accessible. The iOS version will be launch soon. On this occasion, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder and CEO, Hike Messenger...

Google Launches Its own Messaging App Allo

21Sep By AdityaNo Comments

News

Google Launches Its own Messaging App Allo

Search engine giant Google has launched its AI based messaging app Allo, which would compete with the likes of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Available for both Android and iOS platforms, Allo will also mark the debut of Google Assistant in a preview edition. "Whether it is planning a night out or just catching up, we rely on messaging to stay in touch with friends and family every day. But too often we have to hit pause on our conversation ? whether it is to check the status of a flight or look up that new restaurant. So we created Allo, a messaging app that helps you keep your conversation going, by providing assistance when you need it," Google Group Product Manager Amit Fulay said. Powered with artificial intelligence, Allo packs in features including smart reply, options for sh...

Anand Chandrasekaran Will Join Facebook Messenger App Team

19Sep By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Anand Chandrasekaran Will Join Facebook Messenger App Team

As per the sources Facebook hired Snapdeal former executive and a high-profile investor Anand Chandrasekaran to help develop strategies for its Messenger app. The announcement could be made tomorrow. Both Anand and facebook didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Anand Chandrasekaran resume includes company like Yahoo & Snapdeal as a former senior executive. He also served at India’s largest cellular company, Bharti Airtel Ltd. as a chief product officer. Where he launched Airtel’s mobile application and a popular music streaming app. His expertise in Silicon Valley and India will help messenger platform. He will assume a global leadership role working on strategies and partnerships for Facebook’s billion-user-strong texting service, according to people familiar w...

WhatsApp to Share User Data With Facebook: HC Seeks Govt Reply

31Aug By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

WhatsApp to Share User Data With Facebook: HC Seeks Govt Reply

WhatsApps recent decision to share user data with parent company Facebook today reached the doorsteps of Delhi High Court, which sought the governments response on the modification. A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra issued notice to the Centre on a plea by two users of the most popular instant messaging service, alleging that WhatsApp, Facebook Inc and Facebook India Online Pvt Ltds new private policy "compromises the rights of its users". Taking note of the concern by petitioners Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi, the high court wished to examine the issue and asked the concerned authorities to file their reply by September 14. "The privacy policy is in stark contrast to the Privacy Policy existing from July 7, 2012. In its first revised modificatio...

Year’s Biggest Tech IPO- Line Launch Goes Well

18Jul By PriyankaNo Comments

BUSINESS

Year’s Biggest Tech IPO- Line Launch Goes Well

Japan's Line Corp saw its shares rocket on their Tokyo debut, extending a strong start in New York the day before, and taking the value of the messaging app firm to $8.6 billion in the year's biggest tech IPO. The operator of the world's seventh most-used messaging app listed first in New York in a move widely seen as a sign of determination to challenge global peers and eventually expand beyond strongholds of Japan and Southeast Asia. However, Line's 218 million global monthly active users pale in comparison to the 1 billion of market-leader WhatsApp and 900 million of Messenger, both owned by Facebook Inc. Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat, which dominates in China, has 697 million. "We're providing the same kind of services as Facebook and Google, the internet giants of the world," Chi...

India is Primed for the ChatBot Revolution

25Jun By No Comments

BLOGS

India is Primed for the ChatBot Revolution

On my way to work in Bangalore last week (I’m an intern at a chatbot company), I was listening to Radio One, an Indian radio station, when I heard an ad for a competition. At first, I didn’t think much of it. Phone-in radio shows are nothing new in India. But then the radio show host said something curious: “WhatsApp us your messages at…”. I realized that, in India, WhatsApp isn’t a feature or an app like Uber or Swiggy but rather a basic utility like Internet or cell reception. While those in the Western world were first exposed to the Internet through web pages on the desktop, Indians came online through WhatsApp. Today, if you want to stay in touch with your family and friends, you need WhatsApp. The phrase “WhatsApp me” has replaced the phrase “call me” or “message...

31May By AnkitaNo Comments

News

NewsBytes Launches its News Bot on Facebook Messenger

Started by IIT, IIM and Ivy League alumni; Gurgaon-based news technology start-up NewsBytes launched its automated bot on Facebook Messenger. The beta version of their cross-platform bot is a part of Facebook's Messenger program revealed at F8 conference. It is known to be India's first news bot. In its one year of existence, NewsBytes, by Elysium Labs Private Limited, with around 40k downloads on Play Store, has seen a spectacular growth so far. It is one of the highest-rated news apps in India. Its primary focus is to reduce information overload in your everyday news consumption. Its engine along with human curators picks up the most significant news events of the day, summarizes them and creates the contextual timeline around them. Available globally, in English, the bot lets user...

Meet Google New Army – ‘Google Assistant’, ‘Google Home’, ‘Allo’ ‘Duo’ And Android N

20May By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Meet Google New Army – ‘Google Assistant’, ‘Google Home’, ‘Allo’ ‘Duo’ And Android N

Internet giant Google's Chief Executive Sundar Pichai has announced several new features like 'Google Assistant', 'Google Home', a new messaging app called 'Allo' and video calling feature 'Duo' at the ongoing I/O (input/output and 'Innovation in the Open') conference in Mountain View, California. 'Google Assistant' helps one with performing daily tasks like booking movie tickets and 'Google Home' is a voice-activated product that lets users enjoy entertainment, manage everyday tasks and get answers from Google. "It makes it easy to buy movie tickets while on the go, to find that perfect restaurant for your family to grab a quick bite before the movie starts, and then help you navigate to the theater. It's a Google for you, by you," Pichai wrote in a blog post. "The Assistant is an am...