Smart commerce to become the next big thing in eCommerce
With customers constantly seeking greater personalization and enhanced experience, many brands in India are opting for ‘smart commerce’ strategy. That’s according to a new Deloitte report, titled: ‘Smart Commerce: Moving to a platform-based business model’. smart commerce, as an innovative concept that goes beyond using the online medium to facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers. It enables a platform view of an organization and provides an alternative mechanism for stakeholders — suppliers, customers, and employees — to engage in value creation in a transparent and resource-efficient manner. Legacy brands have largely missed taking advantage of the ecommerce opportunity by focusing excessively on the direct-to-customer or D2C opportunity. A platform based Smart commerce lens will help them accrue multiplier benefits that are 10-15 times more impactful with implications on their business models and cost structures,” Anand Ramanathan, Partner, Deloitte India said. “In other words, it includes everything from personalized marketing engine, digital sales, smart pricing, and merchandising, fulfillment, along with having a digital mindset,” Ramanathan added.
Govt pushes changes in finance bill to clear air on taxation for digital assets
The government proposed to tighten the norms for taxation of cryptocurrencies by disallowing set-off of any losses with gains from other virtual digital assets (VDAs). This was part of the 39 amendments proposed by the government to the Finance Bill, 2022. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to move an amendment, clarifying that no tax deduction or set off would be available in place of mining cost of crypto assets and other VDAs or losses from their transfer. Besides, all “transfers” of VDAs or crypto assets would be covered under the proposed 30 per cent tax, irrespective of whether they were a capital asset or not. Also, only the proposed rate of tax deducted at source (TDS) would be applicable to VDA transactions, and not the rate under any other provision.
Crypto industry sees exits ahead of new tax regime
Starting April, gains from trading in crypto and other virtual assets like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will be taxed at a flat 30 per cent, as announced in the Union Budget. And, 1 percent of tax will be deducted at source (TDS) on every transaction involving crypto and other virtual assets. The new tax regime also bars investors from offsetting losses from one crypto asset (such as Bitcoin) against gains from another (say, Ethereum). investors have been squaring off transactions booking profits ahead of the new tax rules.
Crypto players want FinMin to relook proposed 1% TDS
The crypto business has reached out to the finance ministry, searching for to both scale back or eradicate the 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) proposed on the proceeds of all crypto transactions, because the Finance Bill will likely be authorized within the Parliament session that commenced. Top crypto players are taking over the demand with the ministry by way of the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC), which is a part of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, and startup business physique IndiaTech. These crypto platforms which are members of the BACC have said that the proposed TDS be diminished to 0.01-0.1%. “Crypto platforms have recommended a range, and urged the finance ministry to consider it,” stated one of many individuals who is immediately conversant in the discussions. “Even if things are not resolved before the next financial year begins, the industry is hopeful that the TDS requirement may reduce in the next 2-3 quarters.”
EU’s upcoming rules to reign big tech will make messaging apps interoperable
Lawmakers in the European Union have agreed to new rules to curb the market dominance of big tech companies that provide core platform services such as social media networks, search engines, or browsers. Core among them is the decision to open up large messaging services such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and iMessage and make them interoperable with smaller messaging platforms, if they request. This means that users of small messaging platforms will be able to interact, send messages and call users on large messaging platforms without necessarily having to switch to them. Though Meta now allows users to send direct messages from Messenger to Instagram, making them interoperable with other messaging apps will allow users to choose apps they like without having to worry about being left out of conversations on bigger apps.
Competition Commission of India orders investigation against Google
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered an investigation by its director general after receiving complaints against Google. The complaints came from the Indian Newspaper Society (INS), which alleged that the tech company has allegedly abused its dominant position with the news publishers. INS has stated that Google is violating section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002. The claim from the INS is that publishers of news which are made available in digital format, are not being paid a fair value for their content by Google. This comes after Australia, France and Spain passed legislations which require tech companies, including Google, to adequately compensate content producers for using their content on search results. According to the INS, media houses are completely in the dark about the total advertising revenue collected by Google. It claims to be unaware of the actual percentage of the advertising revenue transferred to them.
RegTech and SupTech: What are they and how do they work?
Banks and financial institutions are usually overwhelmed by the sheer volume of laws, rules, and regulations, and the accelerated pace of digitisation, big data, and complexity of modern financial crimes has complicated the task for regulators. To tackle both these challenges,Indian regulators, in line with its global counterparts, are transforming their practices by relying on RegTechs and SupTechs. A RegTech or Regulatory Technology helps a regulator use technology solutions to ensure that companies are complying with the norms. There could be two types of RegTechs – technology that aids organizations to meet regulatory compliance obligations and the other is the use of technology by regulatory authorities themselves to monitor and ensure regulatory compliance by regulated entities. The latter category of RegTech is popularly known as ‘SupTech’, a contraction for the term ‘supervisory technology’. Regulators receive data feeds directly from the firms they are regulating. Rather than having to go out and collect the data, the data is funneled into their systems, and is analyzed by ML and natural language processing technologies to flag suspicious transactions or behaviors.
Global Facebook interest declines about 90% in last 10 years
There has been an 87 per cent decline in the search volume for the term Facebook in the last decade, media reports said. Ageing up of the app’s audience, growing disinterest in the social media site, coupled with the TikTok boom, is behind the waning interest in global Facebook searches, Banklesstimes.com reported. Several market studies have shown that Facebook is not able to attract users under 30 years. The social media site is losing traction with the among teenage and young adult users across its key markets despite rebranding to Meta. From 1.93 billion daily users in Q3 2021, the number of users further fell to 1.929 billion in Q4, the report said. This has been exacerbated as upcoming competitors join the market.
MeitY’s CSC invests in ONDC to promote e-commerce and logistics in rural India
Common Services Centers under the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), on Tuesday said it has invested in the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to promote e-commerce and logistics in rural areas. “It is for the first time that CSC has invested in an initiative like this. ONDC will democratize digital commerce by moving to an open network. With the CSC Grameen eStore being integrated with ONDC, companies can look towards reaching out to the rural market through the network of over 3 lakh Grameen eStores across the country. The partnership will also generate employment opportunities for rural youth by enabling a last mile logistics network,” Dinesh Tyagi, MD, CSC SPV, said in a statement. Open Network for Digital Commerce is an initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and is based on open protocol. It will enable buyers and sellers across segments, such as mobility, grocery, food order and delivery, hotel booking and travel, to be visible and transact.
ONDC’s UPI-like e-commerce platform aims to break Amazon, Flipkart’s hold
The proposed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) seeks to control digital monopolies and create more inclusiveness within the digital commerce ecosystem. As a platform intended to promote open networks developed on open-source methodology, ONDC will also enable many small, medium and micro enterprises to get on to the digital bandwagon. The initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade aims to bring buyers and sellers on a platform. It would break the hold that Amazon and Flipkart have on e-commerce. “The real difference will come when we see small merchants from various cities being able to make their products equally visible without being a part of a large established platform,” said Koshy T, CEO, ONDC, while speaking at the recently concluded Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) Conclave 2022. “Let’s say a very specialized handloom saree coming from Kanchipuram is able to get a defined way of making such a product visible. So, when a few of these things happen, it is going to really unleash the power of the small and medium enterprises.”
Digital advertising increased to 33% of total advertising in 2021 from 2019
According to the FICCI-EY Report 2022 titled, ‘Tuning into consumer – Indian M&E rebounds with a customer-centric approach’, the Indian Media and Entertainment sector has grown by 16.4% to INR 1.61 trillion (US$21.5 billion) in 2021, still 11% short of pre-pandemic 2019 levels. This happened due to the second wave of COVID-19 which impacted the April – June quarter. Assuming no further impact of the pandemic, the report stated that it is expected to grow 17% in 2022 to reach INR 1.89 trillion (US$25.2 billion) and recover its 2019 pre-pandemic levels, then grow at a CAGR of 11% to reach INR 2.32 trillion (US$30.9 billion) by 2024. Digital media has firmly established itself as the second-largest segment. It grew by INR 68 billion in 2021. The share of traditional media stood at 68% of sector revenues. In 2021, when India’s nominal GDP grew 19%, advertising growth outperformed and grew 25%. The highest growth was in television advertising of INR 62 billion, followed by digital advertising of INR 55 billion and then of INR 29 billion from a resilient print. By 2024, India’s advertising market should reach INR 1 lakh crores (INR 1 trillion).
