Hubhopper partners with Indus OS to facilitate vernacular content
This integration will result in users accessing audio content in over 10 Indian languages on various Indian mobile brands across India further giving a boost to the emerging dominance of regional content consumption on digital platforms and devices. With podcasts now being a new trend as far as audio content consumption is concerned, these could appear as a new take to the conventional radio.
Instagram tests ads to connect users with relevant brands
Instagram will be introducing ads in the Explore feed. This would be an opportunity for advertisers to be part of what’s culturally relevant and trending while reaching new audiences who are looking to discover something new. 80% of users already follow a business. Instagram believes as the users would be scrolling past posts pertinent to the brands, the brands would have an upperhand of relevance with their posts.
Twitter rolls out a new desktop interface
The new Twitter desktop UI is live in India now and has been rolled out to select users. The tests are focused on making the user experience better, to find potential gaps while understanding the changing user behaviour. There are two different designs that are being tested. While there have been mixed reactions regarding the new interface, most of the feedback has been overwhelmingly negative.
Google Maps launches a safety feature in India
The ‘Stay Safer’ feature will alert and notify users traveling in taxis, auto-rickshaws when their vehicle goes off-route and also share the live status of their trips with friends/family. This is an India-first feature, as research has shown that a lot Indians restrict their mobility due to safety concerns. Indian users would be able to use this new feature with the latest version of Google Maps on their Android phones.
Fake Business Profiles to be removed from Maps
Maps is flooded with 11 mn false listings and phone numbers that reroute to competing businesses. They charge business owners for free services, they pose as real businesses to defraud customers and secure leads. Google is constantly on the lookout for these fraud accounts, and tries to fight it with both manual and automated systems. So far they have disabled more than 150,000 user accounts that were found to be abusive – a 50% increase from 2017.
TikTok, Bigo,YouTube move to educational content
Bigo Live, a Singapore-based live streaming platform, launched education channels, while TikTok’s #EduTok has become a trending hashtag with over a billion views. Google-owned YouTube has also been focusing on educational content. It is investing $20 million in developing such content. In India, the company competes directly with ByteDance-backed video-apps and Alibaba-backed VMate.
PhonePe 2nd most downloaded finance app in May
PhonePe developed by the National Payments Corporation of India, was the 2nd most downloaded app in the world in the finance category in May after Google Pay. PhonePe has so far been downloaded over 10 crore times from Google Play. Google Pay, which uses the NPCI’s BHIM UPI, has also been downloaded over 10 crore times from Google Play so far. 99% of Google Pay installs occurred in India.
India plans to launch a Whatsapp-like messaging app
To avoid Huawei like situation, India plans on launching an app similar to Whatsapp for official communication, at least for government agencies.The thinking in the government is that all communication and data transmitted over those networks will be 100% stored in India. The official said all officers and government staff could be discouraged to use private messaging platforms, such as Gmail or WhatsApp for official communications.
MeitY ranks Airtel Payments Bank as top bank for digital transactions
Airtel Payments Bank achieved 211.66% of its digital transactions target made via UPI, debit card, mobile banking, net banking, prepaid card, PPI, NEFT among other methods.For 2018-19 fiscal, MeitY set up an overall target of processing 30 billion digital transactions aligned to the government’s Digital India mission. Airtel Payments Bank has a network of 500,000 neighborhood banking points across 29 states.
Whatsapp ready to launch Payments app
The Reserve Bank of India requires payment companies to set up data storage facilities in India to ensure that global payment companies store transaction data within India. Whatsapp is now ready to launch the digital payment app. WhatsApp’s payment service launched as a pilot programme over a year ago, has been mired in a series of regulatory issues ranging from the demand to store data locally to charges of misinformation and fake news being shared.
