Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44 billion
Billionaire businessman Elon Musk has acquired social media platform company Twitter for $44 billion. With this, Twitter will now be a privately held company. In a statement on announcing the takeover, Musk tweeted: “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”He further said, “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,” he added. Musk is the world’s richest person, according to Forbes magazine, with an estimated net worth of $273.6bn. He also leads the aerospace firm SpaceX.
Children in India manage cyber risks better than global peers, study
Underage internet users in India are better prepared than their global counterparts when it comes to dealing with cyberbullying, phishing attacks and other cyber threats, claims a new study by Surfshark, a VPN services company. India has the fifth-lowest exposure to online risks among children globally after Japan, Italy, Spain, and Ecuador. Surfshark attributes this to better access to online safety programs in India. “India has 30% stronger online safety education programs than the global average,” the study shows. The shift to remote learning and increase in time spent online on apps and games after the covid-19 pandemic has put underage users on the radar of cybercriminals. Cybercrimes against children in India grew by 260% in 2020, shows National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data shared in Parliament by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in December 2021.
India becomes global investment hub for digital shopping
With the backing of global investors for e-commerce companies, India has become the second-largest global venture capital investment hub for digital shopping companies in 2021 after the US. The Indian e-commerce segment registered a whopping growth rate of 175 per cent and reached $22 billion from $8 billion in 2020. The US which attracted $51 billion investments came first followed by China in third position with $14 billion and the UK in fourth position with $7 billion according to the London & Partners analysis of Dealroom.co investment data. The data also indicates that the US and India are two of the world’s leading hubs for digital shopping companies with high levels of global investment and unicorns. The reason for this kind of investment may be attributed to increasing demand for online purchases during a series of lockdowns across the world during the Covid-19 pandemic. Within India, Bengaluru was on top globally with $14 billion worth of Venture Capital (VC) investments in digital shopping in 2021, followed by Gurugram at No. 7 with $4 billion and Mumbai at No. 10 with $3 billion. The data also shows that Bengaluru ranked number five among cities with the potential for future unicorns, just behind London.
Meta tests sale of virtual goods in metaverse
Meta is testing new tools that will allow creators to sell virtual items and effects within Meta’s social virtual reality app, Horizon Worlds. The new feature is rolling out to a select number of creators in the US and Canada where Horizon Worlds is currently available. Creators selling items will see a Commerce tab and gizmo within the app’s Create mode. The latest update allows a select group of creators to create digital items and effects they can then sell directly within the virtual social space. These can be fashion items or paid access to a new part of a world. Users aged above 18 in the US and Canada can purchase these goods.
About 64% believe that sharing of data is needed to use digital services
Despite growing concern about data breaches in the increasingly digital world, around 64% of adults accepted that sharing their data was required to use online services. Moreover, they took the step despite declining trust in digital service providers, a report by Imperva claimed. The report — No Silver Linings — also claimed that one in five (20%) of respondents don’t care how much data they share online, while 26% believe it’s “inevitable” that their data will be leaked so they don’t worry about it. The report is based on an online YouGov survey of 6,773 consumers aged above 18 across the US, UK, Australia, and Singapore. As per the same report, even industries that handle the most valuable and sensitive data are not trusted by consumers. Only 37% trust financial services, 33% healthcare, and 29% government organizations, while a mere 5% trust retailers. More than a third (35%) of all consumers don’t trust any of these industries to adequately protect their data at all, as per the same report.
Flipkart acquires ANS Commerce to tap into growing ‘direct to consumer’ space
Google’s annual “Year in Search Report for 2021” showed that search for D2C brands grew by a steep 533% during Covid-era. In a bid to tap into the growing D2C space, Flipkart has acquired ANS Commerce, a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based platform that helps sellers create digital brand stores and storefronts. The acquisition, financial details of which were not disclosed, will help Flipkart target the growing D2C e-commerce sector in India. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions. The total addressable D2C market in India is expected to grow over 15 times from 2015 to 2025. As of 2020, the market value for D2C was pegged at $33.1 billion.
Social media influencers’ incomes on the rise
Earnings and avenues for social media influencers, gamers and streamers are rising in India, by newer codecs, options, programmes, and direct monetization alternatives being provided by platforms, spurring many to chuck common professions and pursue their passions full time. Meta (previously Facebook) mentioned it has seen an over 35% 12 months on 12 months development in the variety of monetizing Facebook creators and video publishers in India as on September 2021. By the end of 2022, the firm plans to globally make investments over $1 billion in programmes that give creators new methods to earn cash for the content material they create on Facebook and Instagram.
Indian pharma finds a sweet spot between traditional and modern marketing
With the fear of the pandemic firmly in recession and the economy in revival mode, pharmaceutical companies are revisiting their tried-and-tested strategy of putting their feet on the street to disseminate information about their products and rejuvenating the doctor and chemist network. Large pharma companies have turned to digital in a big way to create awareness for their products. Social media platforms are also used to disseminate information on new products or medical procedures. Many doctors are also open to using digital and online modes to gather information. The frequency of patient visits, surgeries and doctor conferences are very much at pre-COVID levels.
WhatsApp Pay allowed to increase user base to 100 million from existing 40 million
Retail payments umbrella entity National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said that it has approved WhatsApp to add another 60 million users on unified payments interface (UPI), taking the total base to 100 million. In November 2020, NPCI had allowed WhatsApp to go live on UPI in the multi-bank model. At that point, the Meta-owned messaging app was permitted to expand its UPI user base in a graded manner, beginning with a maximum registered user base of 20 million. A year after that, WhatsApp was allowed to double UPI users to 40 million.
UPI, pay later, digital currency to drive digital payments in coming years
Although homegrown payments system Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will continue to drive digital payments in India, newer avenues like buy now pay later (BNPL), digital currency, corporate payments and offline payments will shape the industry, according to a report by PwC India. The report provides insights into the current and future digital payments landscape and the key factors that are influencing customer spending behaviour and transactions in India. It also looks at upcoming trends in the payments ecosystem like (BNPL), e-RUPI, central bank digital currency (CBDC) and offline payments, and how ecosystem players are likely to adapt to these new payment trends. Titled “The Indian Payments Handbook – 2021-26”, the report pointed out that the domestic digital payments market grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23% by volume and is expected to reach 217 billion transactions in FY26.
