Google announces third-party ‘in app’ billing pilot in India
Google announced that a third-party ‘in app’ billing system pilot will be extended to India and some other markets, allowing non-gaming developers to offer users the choice of an alternative billing mechanism alongside that of Google Play. A reasonable service fee will continue to apply in order to support investments in Android and Play, according to Google. However, specifics of what the reasonable service fees will be, have not been disclosed. Users will still have the choice to use Google Play’s billing system. “With this next phase of Google Play’s user choice billing pilot, all non-gaming developers can offer an additional billing choice alongside Play’s billing system for their users in Australia, Japan, India, Indonesia, and the European Economic Area,” a Google spokesperson said. The move comes amid discontent among developers as well as increasing global scrutiny of app stores norms, and the way commissions are structured by big app stores.
Digital ad insertions in H1 ’22 up 109%
The digital advertising medium in the first half of 2022 witnessed more than three-fold growth as compared to the same period in 2020. According to the half-yearly report by TAM, in Jan-June ’22, digital ad insertions surged by 109% compared to Jan-June ’21, whereas it grew 56% in H1 ’21 over the same period of 2020. During Jan-Jun ’22, the services sector had a 46% share of ad insertions, followed by education with a 13% share. The top two sectors together added more than 55% share of ad insertions on Digital. Building, Industrial & Land Materials or Equipment were the new entrants in the top 10 sectors’ list, Education and Food & Beverages sectors observed positive rank shifts. The top ten categories increased their share of Digital Ad Insertions by 46%. The top ten advertisers accounted for 14% of all digital ad insertions. In Jan-Jun’22, Amazon.in was the most advertised digital brand, followed by Grammarly Keyboard. Meanwhile, among the rising categories, Properties/Real Estates saw the greatest increase in Ad Insertions, followed by Software during Jan-Jun’22 compared to Jan-Jun’21.
Amazon, Google slam Microsoft’s cloud computing changes
Microsoft announced amended licensing deals and other changes that will take effect on October 1 and which they say will make it easier for cloud service providers to compete. Amazon, Google, Alibaba and Microsoft’s own cloud services will be excluded from the deals. Amazon and Alphabet unit Google criticized Microsoft’s cloud computing changes, saying they limit competition and discourage customers from switching to rival cloud service providers. Microsoft’s move came after smaller European Union competitors took their grievances about its cloud service practices to EU antitrust regulators, which subsequently quizzed market players on the issue and what impact they have experienced. “Microsoft is now doubling-down on the same harmful practices by implementing even more restrictions in an unfair attempt to limit the competition it faces – rather than listening to its customers and restoring fair software licensing in the cloud for everyone,” a spokesperson for its cloud service unit AWS said in an email. Google’s vice president for government affairs and policy Google Cloud Marcus Jadotte was equally critical. “Customers should be able to move freely across platforms and choose the technology that works best for them, rather than what works best for Microsoft,” Jadotte said.
India’s B2B e-commerce market to reach $100 bn by 2030
India’s B2B e-commerce market, led by players like Udaan and Jiomart, will reach $90-100 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) by 2030, a report showed. It is further projected that the B2B general trade opportunity in India will reach $1.2 trillion by 2030, with eB2B coming up as a promising digital procurement solution, according to a report by Redseer Strategy Consultants. While manufacturers have limited competitive threat, the eB2B channel is also helping retailers and brands solve multiple problems in their day-to-day business. Given a low adoption in lower city tiers and small stores, eB2B is emerging as a strong digital procurement solution.The report said that eB2B has already captured a fair wallet share of the offline market, and retailers are confident about increasing their spending soon. The report further suggests that approximately 50 per cent of the non-users are willing to shift to eB2B platforms in the coming year.
AI-led personalisation can be a powerful tool for marketers
Ever wondered, how do top brands like Axis Securities, Thomas Cook, EaseMyTrip, and BYJU’S manage to command such a massive premium and maintain their market dominance, no matter the number of years that have gone by? First of all, these brands understand that they aren’t in the business of selling their products alone, but in fact more so towards selling an idea; that of exclusivity, status and achievement. This deeply embedded personalized appeal in their brand avatars continually drives sales. Personalisation empowers your brand to treat every customer as a brand unto himself. Thanks to technologies like AI, ML and data analytics, B2B & B2C businesses can create customized experiences to develop smart marketing solutions. Firms can draw deep insights through data into customer behaviour and strengthen personalized experiences and boost conversion rates. According to a report personalisation increases conversion by 45% for retailers and has reduced abandonment rate from 60% to 46%.
Tata Digital Set for Rejig, to Revamp Neu Super App
Tata Digital (TDL) is making changes to super app Tata Neu after complaints about glitches, poor user experience and payment issues. The Neu Pass loyalty programme has been integrated directly with brand payments so redemptions can be made without delay. Consumers stumbled over restrictions and glitches in redeeming points. Tata Payments will be relaunched in October after ensuring there are no technical glitches in terms of consumer experience. Neu is also finalizing plans to offer online stock broking services — similar to Zerodha — through financial services arm Tata Fintech to gain consumer traction and make it a more attractive proposition. Tata Neu executives put the platform’s Neu Pass members at 22 million. Holders of the Neu Pass earn Neu Coins after making purchases on the app. These can be redeemed for further purchases. Customers have been confused by a lack of uniformity in payments, loyalty points and refunds made by different brands.
Cyberbullying in children more widespread in India than elsewhere
Nearly 85% of children in India are victims of cyberbullying (or have cyberbullied someone else) at rates that are nearly twice as high as the global average, according to a new study. Cybersecurity company McAfee’s report, “Cyberbullying in Plain Sight”, is based on a survey of 11,687 parents and their children from 10 different countries that was performed between June 15 and July 5. Spreading false rumours was identified as a prevalent kind of cyberbullying in India at 39 percent, being excluded from groups and conversations was recorded at 35 percent, and name-calling was reported at 34 percent. Notably, 45 percent of Indian students reported hiding their experiences with cyberbullying from their parents, maybe as a result of the general lack of discussion. According to the survey, Indian children see and suffer the highest cyberbullying across practically all social media and messaging platforms, with 42% of kids being the subject of racial cyberbullying, a startling 14% higher rate than the rest of the globe.
Zomato Expects Hyperpure to be as Big as its Core
Zomato said that its business-to-business (B2B) supplies business, Hyperpure, could be as big or even bigger than its core food delivery business, during its first annual general meeting (AGM) after going public. The company also reiterated its focus on growing its top-line and reassured shareholders that it remains on track on its path to profitability. This, according to Zomato management, will take care of its share price on the bourses over the long-term. “Our core food delivery business is headed for profitability. We think Hyperpure may become as large or larger than even food delivery… The quick commerce (through Blinkit) also increases our addressable market,” said. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2023 (FY23) ending June, revenue from operations for Hyperpure increased 40% to ₹272.7 crore compared to ₹194.2 crore in the previous quarter ending in March, and 240% from ₹80 crore in Q1 FY22, a year ago. It was reported earlier this month that Zomato Hyperpure Private Limited has completed the acquisition of Blinkit’s warehousing and ancillary services business, Hands On Trades Private Limited (HOTPL) for $8 million in cash. For FY22, adjusted revenues from the company’s Hyperpure business stood at ₹540 crore, while that from its food delivery business stood at ₹4,760 crore.
Financial literacy discussions rise 185%, says Twitter
Twitter has published a report ‘Twitter trends 2022’ that helps it to identify the top trends in India in the last two years, with the aim of helping brands connect better with users. One of those is the rise of ‘finfluencers’. There has been a 185% increase in discussions around financial literacy, it said in the report. There has also been a 62% increase in discussions on finance in 2021. Twitter Trends 2022 listed the main topics of interest as technology, music, sports, and food and drink. Over the two-year period, it said, the must-know trends were, “finance goes social”, “fan-built worlds”, and “entrepreneurship hits peak culture”. The report has looked at billion tweets. Within finance, it said following on from greater financial literacy, the world of finance is opening up to enthusiasts because of finfluencers who are inside the sector and educate the public and talk about things such as market news, learning to trade, investments, investment accounting, and hedge funds.
68% CMOs aim to boost MarTech spending
About 68 per cent (two-third) of the chief marketing officers (CMOs) aim to increase their technology spending on marketing this year, a new report said. In 2021, Gartner estimated that Martech (marketing tech) made up 26.2 per cent of the average marketing budget. This is clearly not enough as CXOs want to expand their Martech stack further. The trend for 2022 seems to echo Gartner’s 2021 projection that 68 per cent (about two-thirds) of CMOs want to increase their technology spending on marketing. “The shift to digital is permanent,” says Dinesh Menon, Global Chief Strategy & Business Officer, Resulticks. Resulticks is a global leader in real-time customer engagement solutions and was recently named in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs (MMH).The 2022 report, according to Gartner “highlights digital marketing leaders’ increasing reliance on multichannel marketing hubs for business growth”. Resulticks is being used by HDFC Bank, UTI MF, ABFRL, Tanger Outlets, among others. Martechs tend to “measure the return on investment of marketing expenses”. Thanks to this, Resulticks has on-boarded new customers during the pandemic. According to Menon, among customers of Resulticks, “There is a growing demand for a more cohesive or integrated system which can consolidate data, be available at customer preferred touch points and provide real-time insights for personalized content and campaign dissemination. We on-boarded Sonkim Retail during the pandemic, while Tata Digital was onboarded just before the pandemic.”
Meta rolls out NFT posts on Facebook, Instagram
Meta Platforms is offering a wider rollout of its compatibility with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and web3 wallets. After having announced the feature in May, when Meta said that users would get the ability to link their NFT wallets and showcase their digital art purchases and sales, the service now appears to have become available to a wider set of individuals — albeit still at a beta rollout stage. With this feature, users who are selected for the beta will get a prompt asking them to link their NFT wallets to their Meta accounts. Doing so will link their wallets to both Facebook and Instagram, and users will be able to post their NFTs on either media subsequently. While the initial phase of hype saw adoption of various NFT projects from digital artists, the demand for these digital arts has since dropped. According to NFT market tracker NonFungible, the daily NFT trading volume and total traded value per day of NFTs fell from close to 5 million NFTs and over $4.8 billion in NFT trades per day — to as low as 11,000 NFTs traded at just over $5 million on August 30.
7 in 10 shoppers to do festive shopping from D2C sites
Excitement among Indian consumers for the upcoming festive season is at an all-time high, according to the second Festive Pulse Survey by The Trade Desk (Nasdaq: TTD). The survey highlighted that 68 percent of Indians are excited about the upcoming festive season sales, an increase from 59 percent last year. In addition, two in three shoppers intend to spend as much or more this festive season. Buoyant optimism prevails over inflation concerns – The survey shows that nearly 40 percent of consumers plan to start shopping in mid-October or earlier. As shoppers begin to splurge on their festive shopping, almost half (46 percent) intend to spend more on travel experiences than in previous years. Nearly six in 10 consumers plan to spend on gifts for family and friends, while more than half intend to splurge on food, beverages, and entertainment. As consumers begin buying more online, numerous brands have also accelerated their direct-to-consumer (D2C) ecommerce offerings. The survey affirms that D2C channels are gaining traction amongst consumers. Nearly seven in 10 shoppers (66 percent) intend to use D2C sites for festive shopping. The survey also indicated that consumer preference for trusted and familiar brands varied across product categories.