Thursday, December 19

Tag: online

NearU, an Online to Offline App Signs Up 6000 Retailers in 6 Months
News

NearU, an Online to Offline App Signs Up 6000 Retailers in 6 Months

NearU App, an Online to Offline (O2O) App Signs up 6000 Retailers in 6 Months Including Marquee Brands, Empowering Them to Push Deals to Their Target Customers, Anytime, Anywhere. The Indian Retail Industry today comprises of 7.5% organized retail, 92% unorganized retail and a meager 0.50% of e-tail. This clearly reflects the scope of tapping the offline retail market space at various levels. Hence, a fleet of retail-centric hyper local, apps have lately entered the app marketplace, with their business model revolving around a huge chunk of participation from the retailers. Now the question arises that how many of them, in the real sense, provide a value proposition for the retailers. Along with the users, even the vendors nowadays are facing app fatigue, or rather, collaboration fat...
Bangalore Based Food Startup Swiggy Raised Rs 47 crore
FUNDING

Bangalore Based Food Startup Swiggy Raised Rs 47 crore

Online food ordering startup Swiggy has raised Rs 47 crore from existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, DST Global and Accel Partners. The value of Swiggy is now over Rs 865 crore or $130 million. Over the past few months, the company has also seen its order value basket size increased to Rs 375 per order. Close to 30% of these orders are cashless. Swiggy is also fulfilling close to 40,000 orders from the eight cities that it operates in including Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi-NCR. The new round of funding gives the startup additional horsepower to go deeper into its core eight cities and maintain its market leadership position as it competes with other startups including Zomato and Runnr, to be formed after the merger of Roadrunnr and TinyOwl. Reddy explained that the compa...
49% Kids Can’t Live Without Social Media – Kaspersky Lab Study
ANALYSIS

49% Kids Can’t Live Without Social Media – Kaspersky Lab Study

Kids today spend more of their lives online than offline, according to research carried out by Kaspersky Lab and iconKids and Youth. As kids grow older, offline activities tend to transfer to the online world. Moreover, three-in-four children prefer to use the Internet to get information, rather than any other source. These findings show that children can become even more vulnerable online without parental supervision and support. Children stay close to their mobile devices all day, and even tend to sleep with them, so that they can go online around the clock from any location. The research shows that four-in-ten are reluctant to put their smartphone down even during mealtimes. Furthermore, 23% of parents of 8-10 year olds admitted that their kids take their mobile phones to bed with...
From Failing in College to Generating Revenue Worth 1 Cr, The Story of Pratik Luther
Story

From Failing in College to Generating Revenue Worth 1 Cr, The Story of Pratik Luther

Pratik Luther was pursuing his MBA from Humber College Toronto, Canada when he failed his final semester project because his colleagues did not think he participated enough. As a result, he was forced to repeat a semester with the upcoming batch 3 months down the line. “I got 3 totally blank months with no work to do. It was the month of October and it was freezing in Toronto, so all I would do was watch TV series initially,” Says Pratik. He started to work as a part-time concierge in a building under construction. Pratik ended up having so much free time that he decided to learn web designing. And thus, an e-commerce company of merchandise was born! “Canada’s fast internet connection is one of the most important factors that contributes for the birth of my business. I started worki...
What’s the Cost of Surfing the Internet? ‘Earth Mode’ Browser Plug-in Will Tell You
News

What’s the Cost of Surfing the Internet? ‘Earth Mode’ Browser Plug-in Will Tell You

You might not realise it but the amount of time you spend and what you do online takes its toll on the environment. Research* suggests that the average online user consumes 130 kgs of carbon a year - the equivalent to driving 740 km in a car - which could be offset by planting four trees. A new plug-in for Google's Chrome browser launched ahead of Earth Day on Friday (22 April) will help educate people about how much energy they consume online by calculating their digital carbon footprint and, as a result, inspire them to think about their everyday energy efficiency. The new Chrome plug-in comes from Johnnie Walker®, makers of the world's best-selling Scotch whisky, who are partnering with Earth Day Network to urge people to take a small but progressive step towards he...
Snapdeal Partners IIT Delhi to Sell SmartCane Online
News

Snapdeal Partners IIT Delhi to Sell SmartCane Online

E-commerce marketplace Snapdeal today said it has partnered IIT Delhi and Phoenix Medical Solutions to sell SmartCane online, priced at Rs 3,500. SmartCane is an advanced version of the white cane used by visually impaired people and ensures independent mobility and safety of the user. As a part of the partnership, potential donors can also choose to donate SmartCane via Snapdeal Sunshine platform, where the product will be shipped directly to NGO partner Saksham that works for empowering persons with blindness. Using ultrasonic ranging, SmartCane helps predict above knee-level obstacles and therefore, ensures safety against collisions. The device is already used by nearly 10,000 people in the country. "We are confident that this product will be well received and our customers...
Karl Mehta Led EdCast Raised $16 million Funding in Series B
FUNDING

Karl Mehta Led EdCast Raised $16 million Funding in Series B

EdCast, the online and mobile platform for distributing educational content from a network of industry experts, has raised in its latest round of funding led by GE Asset Management. The funding will use to help educational institutions, educators, enterprises and governments worldwide to collaborate with each other. Other investors joining with GE Asset Management includes – SoftBank Capital, Cervin Ventures, Stanford StartX Fund and Penta Global. “We are laser focused on our mission to empower enterprises in the knowledge economy with curated, contextual SmartBites (bite size knowledge) used everyday to get smarter in their work. The Millennials in the workplace along with the complexity of engaging and educating customers and partners is creating the need and demand for our knowledge...
Jabong Narrows Down Gross Loss to 46.7 cr in 2015
BUSINESS

Jabong Narrows Down Gross Loss to 46.7 cr in 2015

Online lifestyle retailer Jabong has narrowed down its gross loss to Rs 46.7 crore for 2015 on the back of lower level of discounts. The gross loss of the company stood at Rs 159.5 crore in 2014, the company's parent Rocket Internet said in an investor presentation today. The company's net revenue rose 7.1 per cent to Rs 869.1 crore for the reported year compared with Rs 811.4 crore in 2014. "Gross profit margin improved by 14 pp (percentage point) driven by lower level of discounts," the company said. For the fourth quarter of 2015, the companys gross loss declined to Rs 1.9 crore as against Rs 45.9 crore in the same quarter last year. "The increased focus on gross profit margin, unit economics and overall profitability resulted in net revenue and GMV decline in Q4 ...
Auto and Taxi Unions to Protest Against App-Based Services
News

Auto and Taxi Unions to Protest Against App-Based Services

A section of auto and taxi unions will take out a protest march today against app-based taxi services in the national capital. "Hundreds of auto rickshaw and taxi drivers will take out a protest march with their vehicles from Samatha Sthal to Delhi Secretariat tomorrow," Rajendra Soni, general secretary of auto and taxi unions, said. He said that for the last two months, they have been demanding the government to control app-based taxi services who are taking away their livelihood. "If government does not pay heed to our demand immediately, all taxis and auto rickshaws will go off work soon" he said. "App-based taxi services are affecting our business and we cannot sit silent. Government should stop their services as most of the app-based cab operators are not following rul...
Digital Ad Spending in India Will Touched $1 bn in 2017, $11.82 billion in 2020: eMarketer
News

Digital Ad Spending in India Will Touched $1 bn in 2017, $11.82 billion in 2020: eMarketer

Digital ad spending in India is forecast to surpass the USD 1-billion mark, accounting for 14.3 per cent of the total media advertisement outlay, in 2017, a report by eMarketer today said. The report, which pegs the total media advertisement spending to grow to over USD 8.2 billion next year, said advertisers in India will spend more than USD 1.1 billion towards digital advertisement. "This year, just 12.6 per cent of all advertisement spending will go towards digital. In 2017, digital ad spending in India will surpass USD 1 billion and will amount to 14.3 per cent of total outlays. By 2020, the figure will be 20.2 per cent," it added. eMarketer estimated that advertisers in India will spend about USD 7.41 billion on paid placements in all media in 2016, up 11.3 per cent over the ...
E-commerce Policy is Unlikely to Change The Discounting Model of Online Retailers- Source
News

E-commerce Policy is Unlikely to Change The Discounting Model of Online Retailers- Source

The recently introduced e-commerce policy is unlikely to change the discounting model of online retailers in the near-term, says India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra). According to the ratings agency, further clarity is essential for the successful regulation of the sector, implementation of the policy and achieving the desired objective to bring about a level playing field between offline and online retailers. Ind-Ra also said the traditional offline retailers are unlikely to benefit as the policy is directed towards defining and limiting the scope of operations of e-commerce business. The policy aims to define and ring fence the marketplace operation activity of e-commerce players (e-tailers) and to distinguish the scope of marketplace and inventory based model as the Foreign Dire...
Now, This Indian State to Impose Tax on E-commerce Shipments
INDIA

Now, This Indian State to Impose Tax on E-commerce Shipments

Himachal Pradesh has become the latest state to impose tax on e-commerce shipments with the state Assembly today passing a bill providing for levying tax on all online purchases to check revenue loss caused by online trading. Major states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have already announced imposing tax on online purchases to protect local traders. The HP Assembly passed the Himachal Pradesh Tax on Entry of Goods (Amendment) Bill 2016, that provides for levying tax on all online purchases to check revenue losses caused by online trading. The bill was passed without any discussion as the BJP members were protesting on some other issue when the bill came up for discussion. As per Excise and Taxation Minister Parkash Chauhdary, the Bill includes provisions to...