Facebook’s monthly user base reaches 2.85B amid record sales
Facebook now has 2.85 monthly active users (MAUs), an increase of 10 per cent (year-over-year) while its daily active user base has reached 1.88 billion on average, an increase of 8 per cent. The social network beat expectations and posted a record revenue of $26.1 billion in the first quarter, 48 per cent more than the same period last year. It reported net income of $9.5 billion, nearly double the income of $4.9 billion in the first quarter of 2020. “We had a strong quarter as we helped people stay connected and businesses grow,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “We will continue to invest aggressively to deliver new and meaningful experiences for years to come, including in newer areas like augmented and virtual reality, commerce, and the creator economy,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. Facebook shares jumped 7 per cent in extended trading and closed up 1.2 per cent. The company said that its family daily active people (DAP) was 2.72 billion on average for March 2021, an increase of 15 per cent year-over-year while family monthly active people (MAP) was 3.45 billion.
Transaction VOD – The rise of TVOD in the Indian OTT market
The fast-growing Indian over the top (OTT) sector is largely dominated by Advertising VOD (AVOD) and Subscription VOD (SVOD) players. Now the third set of players have emerged on the scene with Transaction VOD (TVOD) as their revenue model. TVOD model allows viewers the flexibility to pay only for content that they want to watch. According to FICCI-EY 2021 report, the TVOD model had made a strong beginning in 2020 with several films releasing through this method when cinema halls were shut. The TVOD model is currently in its infancy with players like ZEEL-owned ZEEPlex, BookMyShow Stream, Shemaroo Entertainment’s ShemarooMe Box Office, FanCode, and Epic On among others trying their luck. ZEEPlex and ShemarooMe Box Office came into existence during the pandemic as film producers struggled to release their films due to the shutdown of cinema halls. OTT players like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, and ZEE5 had also seized the opportunity by pivoting to direct-to-digital film releases. With live events taking a big hit during the pandemic, online ticketing platform BookMyShow ventured into video streaming with BookMyShow Stream. Recently, IN10 Media’s OTT platform EpicON enabled the TVOD model on its platform to widen its subscriber base. BookMyShow COO – Cinemas Ashish Saksena said that the TVOD model has been untapped in India at scale so far. He added that BookMyShow Stream follows the global traditional window where TVOD comes after a theatrical window for a film and precedes the window for the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platforms.
Covid restrictions push up demand for mobile data, home WiFi
Families in home quarantine due to Covid-19, increased dependency on social media to stay connected and indefinite work from home have pushed demand for mobile phone data and fibre-to-home (FTTH), popularly known as home Wi-Fi. “There has been a sharp increase in demand in FTTH by consumers as work from home is declared in most companies and families now depend on the internet more than ever,” said Rajesh Chharia, president of the Internet Service Providers’ Association of India. Industry executives estimate a 50-60% surge in broadband data consumption over the past two months. There are 22 million wired, or fixed-line, broadband subscribers in India, with Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm and state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. among the major providers. “Our networks are fully ready to serve the requirements of our customers and keep India connected. This has been demonstrated since the onset of the pandemic. Our teams are working round the clock to ensure seamless services,” Airtel said. Airtel said its FTTH network now covers over 200 cities and it is provisioning connections of up to 1 Gbps on demand from customers. Telcos have noticed that the increase in data consumption depends on location. Metros like Delhi and Mumbai, which have seen many migrants move back to their home states, are seeing a data spike of about 10% but there is a 15% increase in data consumption in states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where a large chunk of the migrants come from.
Snapmint integrates with Google Pay to lend to GenZ customers
Snapmint, financial services platform addressing lifestyle purchase needs of youngsters has been integrated by Google Pay into its Spot platform for businesses. The integration of the new age fintech lender on the Spot platform addresses and simplifies the end-to-end lifestyle purchasing needs of this audience on Google Pay. They will now be able to utilise Google Pay to buy electronics and fashion products. Completing KYC norms, checking eligibility for credit limit and availing EMI offers around Rs 3000 will be possible within seconds. Abhineet Sawa, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer said, “A Gen Z customer typically makes close to 6-15 fashion and lifestyle purchases per year. These include headphones, smartwatches, shoes, clothes, sunglasses, backpacks and fitness bands. The existing credit options have ignored these purchase categories. Other EMI options in the market are designed for appliances, vehicles and other large value goods purchased once in 5-10 years, with long repayment periods.” He added, “Credit cards are limited to 3% of the affluent tier I segment and come with hidden charges of up to 39% interest rate. Banks on the other hand focus only the top 5% of the customer base and do not address small ticket loans. Gpay’s reach and Snapmint’s offering will certainly appeal to a large millennial and GenZ segment across tier II-III cities and towns in India.” Nalin Agrawal, Co-Founder and CEO, Snapmint says, “Our strategic partnership with Google Pay further elevates the trust which India’s millennials and GenZ users have in us. We are excited to widen our existing reach and connect with 125 million Gpay users and add value to their purchase needs.”
Amazon India announces measures to help SMBs amid COVID-19
Amazon India announced a slew of measures, including waiver in various fees paid by sellers, to help small and medium businesses amid the deadly second wave of the COVID pandemic. The e-commerce major said it is waiving 50 per cent of the ‘sell-on-amazon’ or ‘referral fee’ from May 1-31 for a section of sellers and will reimburse storage fees and long-term storage fees charged for keeping sellers’ products at its warehouses for merchants based out of non-serviceable pin codes. “We understand this situation is impacting small and medium businesses (SMBs) the most and we are taking a host of measures to help our sellers navigate the economic challenges caused by the pandemic,” Amazon India Vice President Manish Tiwary said in a blog post. Amazon India has over 8.5 lakh sellers on its platform. It is temporarily relaxing the claim windows for various types of reimbursements that the sellers file for 30 days. The company said it is also taking steps across the board to mitigate any negative impact on sellers’ performance metrics due to defaults caused by the pandemic and the resulting restrictions, on the sellers’ account health. “We are also working to relax our policies regarding late shipment rate, order cancellation and returns to better support our sellers during this period,” the blog said. The record number of COVID-19 cases daily in the second wave has stretched the healthcare infrastructure of the country. Many states have announced lockdowns and curfews to tackle the situation, impacting businesses. Most states have allowed e-commerce companies to operate and allowed delivery of only essential items like grocery and medicines.In its SMB Impact Report 2020, Amazon India had noted that it works with more than 10 lakh small and mid-size business (SMBs) including sellers, delivery and logistics partners, neighbourhood stores, enterprises, developers, content creators and authors in the country