MxMIndia

Category: Digital

  • As a proclamation of the success of its vision & motto

    Indiamart launches new brand campaign

    By our Staff

     

    IndiaMart, the B2B online marketplace, has launched a new tagline – ‘IndiaMart, aur kya!’ Thus, establishing IndiaMart as an obvious choice for all business needs. It carries the essence of how suppliers from 56 industries rest their faith and trust on IndiaMART to flourish to their fullest and compete with the larger enterprises.

     

    Speaking at the launch of the new tagline “IndiaMart Aur Kya”, Dinesh Gulati, COO, of IndiaMart said: “MSMEs have always been at the core of IndiaMart’s vision of making doing business easy. Over the years, we have witnessed the various challenges that small business owners face while establishing and running a business all by themselves. Therefore, we have evolved our offerings to provide end to end business solutions to enable small businesses at every step of their journey. Via this brand video, we want to present the struggles of a business owner in a relatable manner and showcase how IndiaMART is the inevitable solution for any business need. From business purchasing to sales IndiaMART has become an obvious choice which is reflected in the new tagline – IndiaMART, Aur Kya!”

     

  • All five Qyou Media India channels on Smart TVs and mobile devices to be hosted on app

    Qyou Media India launches Q Play app

    By Our Staff

     

    Qyou Media India has launched its direct-to-consumer app, Q Play. Available to download on the Google Play store and directly on Smart TVs and mobile devices, the free app offers all five Qyou Media India channels and going forward will be the digital destination for the network’s upcoming content. The ad-supported download-and-watch app can be simply downloaded without any registration hassle.

     

    Commenting on the launch, Krishna Menon, Chief Operating Officer, QYOU Media India, said: “The launch of Q Play opens a myriad of new possibilities. It enables us to be independent in addition to relying upon third-party platforms for distribution. The launch of this app will further deepen our audience engagement as it tries to bridge the need gap for relatable and entertaining content. We are thrilled to launch Q PLAY into the market. While it will take us time to build and grow our user base, Q PLAY is the tip of the spear around our digital objective to create a growing one-on-one customer relationship around our brand.”

     

  • Aims to bolster its creator ecosystem in the North

    MX Player announces interactive platform

    By Our Staff

     

    MX Media & Entertainment announces the launch of MX Live, an interactive streaming platform on Android for content creators.

     

    Speaking on hosting its first in-person event, Nikhil Gandhi – COO, MX Media said: “MX Live was launched with an aim to harness the power of live entertainment as well as to empower the rapidly growing creator community and provide them with a platform to showcase their skills. Since our launch in the last couple of months, we have witnessed tremendous adoption from our creator community as well as from our user base. With our first in-person initiative, we are hopeful of creating a platform that will mutually benefit our stakeholders while also strengthening our overall proposition in becoming the one-stop shop for all things entertainment.”

     

  • Talkwalker & Khoros report Enabling better customer experiences on social media platforms

    Social Media Trends 2023

     

     

    By Our Staff

     

    Talkwalker, the consumer intelligence acceleration platform, and Khoros, a digital-first customer engagement software and services, have released the Social Media Trends 2023 Report. The report follows the announcement of the companies’ strategic partnership to seamlessly deliver deep listening and social media management through a unified experience.

     

    Some of the key trends identified in this report include:

    ● Customer experience will get even more social – 75% of consumers say the pandemic has driven long-term changes in their behaviours and preferences, including a bigger focus on urgency. Brands must prioritise customer experience by providing support, information, or solutions as fast as possible. In 2023, expect more brands to leverage social media as dedicated support channels, enabling a fast, efficient response no matter which platform consumers use to get in touch.

    ● Social commerce will rise and fall – Large increases in post-pandemic digital growth and rising costs of living are driving increased demand for affordability. Soon, consumers will be more willing to explore new shopping channels such as social. However, some countries are more ready to adopt social commerce than others. In India, from FY 20-25, social commerce is expected to grow at 55-60% CAGR, taking the current market size from $1.5-2 billion to $16-20 billion.

    ● Brands will place emphasis on communities rather than personas – 66% of branded communities say that their community has led to increased loyalty. Brands will focus on gaining deeper knowledge of their consumer ecosystems to understand who is driving and sharing brand-focused conversations. Influencers, employee advocates, and consumers will be engaged within brand communities to generate authentic connections and consumer-led content.

     

    David Low
    David Low

    Said David Low, Talkwalker CMO: “We all know the digital ecosphere has disrupted how marketers engage with consumers. In this new environment, marketers must focus on forging symbiotic relationships through a better understanding of online conversations and taking quicker action. It’s this new understanding that will help brands create meaningful experiences and become closer to their consumers.”

     

    Added Dillon Nugent, Khoros CMO: “As marketers, we know the value of data and the importance of listening to our customers. But, we need to be more action-oriented and use those insights more effectively. Consumers’ comfort level for doing things online-shopping, researching, socializing—is not slowing down as the world opens up. They also care more about their communities—global, local, IRL, and online. Marketers need to tap into these trends and behaviours more deeply to personalize customers’ experiences and create more impactful strategies that empower your brand to stay connected to customers and grow your presence in the market.”

     

  • To lead monetisation efforts within mid-market and SMB clients

    ShareChat appoints Gaurav Jain as Head of Emerging Business

    By Our Staff

     

    ShareChat, social media and social networking service, developed by Bengaluru-based Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd., has appointed Gaurav Jain as Head of Emerging Business to lead its monetisation efforts. At ShareChat, Jain will focus on reaching mid-market and SMB clients and head the independent agency network in India.

     

    Welcoming Jain, Ankush Sachdeva, CEO and Co-founder of ShareChat and Moj, said: “We are happy to have Gaurav on board with us to lead monetization of emerging businesses for ShareChat. As longtail merchants and MSMEs are transitioning to digital advertising, ShareChat and Moj are the foremost platforms to reach the Bharat audience. In the past year, we have developed several services and offerings tailored for brands keen to engage with their audience based in the regional markets. We are creating customizable hyperlocal advertising solutions that allow business owners to target customers in their preferred local languages with affordable price points and high ROI opportunities. Gaurav’s rich experience and expertise in growing mid-market segments will surely help us in achieving leadership in local markets.”

     

  • To build creative content strategies and social media campaigns

    Global Creator Network wins digital media mandate of Ajio

    By Our Staff

     

    Ajio, the online fashion e-retailer and Reliance Retail’s digital commerce initiative, has recently given its social and content mandate to OML Entertainment’s branded content arm – Global Creator Network (GCN). As a part of the mandate, GCN will build a brand strategy, creative first social campaigns with IPs, creator activations and enable the brand to build a community of like-minded people across various social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram..

     

    Commenting on the win, Devarshi Shah, Senior Vice President – branded content,GCN, said, “As a team, we are excited to be associated with a popular and loved brand like Ajio. It would be interesting to build a fresh line of digital communication strategies that is futuristic yet relevant in today’s time. Our focus will be to create meaningful, innovative and fresh content strategies. The aim is to keep the brand ahead of the competition with campaigns that click.”

     

  • To enable the orderly growth of the Web3 ecosystem in India

    Bharat Web3 Association unveiled

    By Our Staff

     

    Industry leaders across Web3 verticals unveiled the Bharat Web3 Association (BWA), to enable and support the growth of India’s Web3 ecosystem. Members of the BWA span multiple verticals including NFTs, Web3 Gaming, Infrastructure Providers, Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs), and Token Projects.

     

    The BWA will focus on — 1) driving awareness through research to help keep pace with this evolving technology; 2) promoting dialogue between key stakeholders; 3) setting standardised principles in the Web3 industry; 4) encouraging and promoting Web3 and blockchain innovation; and (5) nurturing India’s talent pool.

     

    Web3 works on the core principle of blockchain technology. It is the future of the internet and can empower users by returning control into the hands of consumers and communities. The BWA believes that India has the potential to lead the world over the next decade by building a strong Web3 ecosystem in the country, in line with the government’s ‘Make-In-India’ initiative.

     

    Speaking on the occasion, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder & CEO, Hike, said: “Indian consumers spend an average of 7+ hours per day on their smartphones, almost half their waking lives. The blockchain finally enables consumers to own the value associated with their time spent digitally thus potentially unlocking brand new economic opportunities for themselves. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the next wave of wealth and value creation will come from a financial world that is programmable end to end. India could be at the centre of this next wave and boost its economy to strengthen its position on the world stage. With the BWA we aim to support the government to develop a strong Web3 ecosystem in India.”

     

    Emphasising on the Web3 potential and the key role that the association will play, Sandeep Nailwal, Co-Founder, Polygon Technology added: “With the advent of Web3, we are at the cusp of a technological revolution, which has immense potential to stimulate economic growth, create jobs, boost financial inclusion, and enhance privacy and security. Owing to its thriving developer community, entrepreneurial spirit, fast-growing economy, sound digital infrastructure, and deep digital adoption, India is poised to become a leader in the Web3 space. Indian entrepreneurs have already made a mark in the ecosystem and are innovating for the world, developing valuable public use cases. BWA will play a pivotal role in helping India achieve its potential as a global Web3 leader.”

     

  • To help grow brand

    Himanshu Chakrawarti is CEO, Snapdeal Marketplace

    By Our Staff

     

    The AceVector Group which operates several platforms in the e-commerce space, including Snapdeal, has elevated Himanshu Chakrawarti as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Snapdeal marketplace business.

     

    Commenting on Himanshu’s elevation Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, co-founders of Snapdeal and AceVector Group said: “Himanshu has played an integral role in steering Snapdeal’s marketplace business over the last year. His success in building brands and expertise in retail operations clubbed with an in-depth understanding of the value retail segment has helped us build a comprehensive toolkit to serve India’s mega cohort of value-savvy users. We are confident that under his leadership, Snapdeal’s marketplace business will continue to grow and excel on its chosen path of focused and profitable growth.

     

  • To introduce gaming community to Web3 gaming through content and conversation

    Fruitbowl Digital wins communications mandate for IndiGG

    By Our Staff

     

    Mumbai-based Fruitbowl Digital, a digital marketing agency, has won the creative communications mandate for IndiGG, a gaming community with a mission to onboard 500M+ gamers from the Indian subcontinent and provide them with an opportunity to earn monies while playing video games daily, completely free of cost.

     

    Said Ishank Gupta, Advisor, IndiGG: “Wherever technology has evolved to, gaming has followed closely behind. The country has now been thoroughly engaged in virtual gaming and we are glad to partner with Fruitbowl to highlight the existing and potential impact of the decentralized platform that IndiGG is all set to provide for gamers and to build the future of gaming together.”

     

    Commenting on the win, Dedeepya Reddy, Co-Founder, Fruitbowl Digital, added: “The future of the gaming industry and web3 is upon us and people have questions; through this partnership we aim to answer them. The goal is to nurture a decentralised community of IndiGG Gamers to be advocates of this unique opportunity that we believe will continue to evolve and grow.”

     

  • Highlights merchant-customer interactions, convenience and rewards

    Amazon Pay film to show ease of digital payments

    By Our Staff

     

    Amazon Pay, an online payments processing service owned by Amazon, unveiled the second leg of its digital campaign #AbHarDinHuaAasan to celebrate the way digital payments simplify lives. The campaign film portrays day-to-day instances where merchants experience the convenience of Amazon Pay.

     

    Speaking about the campaign, Vikas Bansal, Whole Time Director – Amazon Pay India said: “Our aim is to simplify lives and fulfil aspirations by solving the payments and financial needs of every Indian. We make digital payments trusted, convenient, fast and frictionless, and enable the widest choice of payment options for both our merchants and customers. Our continued focus is to empower SMBs and micro-merchants through payment tools and solutions which help enhance their digital payment experience across multiple customer touchpoints. #AbHarDinHuaAasan is our endeavor to raise awareness and further strengthens the need of adoption of digital payments and encourage every merchant, customer, old or young to transact seamlessly.”

     

  • Signs-up Airtel Xstream Fiber as the presenting sponsor

    Prime Video announces immersive cricket experience for India-NZ tour

    By Our Staff

     

    Amazon Prime Video, or Prime Video, has announced special programming for the India-New Zealand men’s cricket series starting November 18. As a part of a multi-year partnership, international men’s and women’s cricket matches played in New Zealand across all formats – will be available exclusively on Prime Video India.

     

    Talking about the upcoming series, Sushant Sreeram, director – SVOD business, Prime Video, India said: “There are many things that are heterogeneous about the delightfully diverse India when it comes to entertainment – be it choice of language, genres of shows and movies, devices that customers prefer watching their favourite entertainment on, and so much more. But there is one absolute unifier that everyone across the country is unanimously passionate about, and that’s cricket! With our slate of compelling shows and movies over the last 6 years, we have strived to super-serve our customers, and they have emphatically picked Prime Video as their most loved entertainment destination. Now with live cricket, made immersive and accessible with multi-language feeds, fantastic studio programming and a superb set of commentators to take us through the series, we are confident we are not just going to deliver on a superior experience for the legions of cricket fans in the country, but make Prime Video that much more exciting, delightful and the first choice of entertainment for everyone.”

     

  • The new owner's various moves to change Twitter will only be of advantage to right-wing oppressors, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Into the mind of Elon Musk

     

     

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Ranjona BanerjiAmerican journalist Lydia Polgreen in a column for The New York Times has spelled out in detail the dangers of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter: for free speech and for democracy and especially for the media in countries like India:

    “Twitter has historically fought against censorship. Whether that will continue under Musk seems very much a question. The Indian government has reasons to expect friendly treatment: Musk’s company Tesla has been trying to enter the Indian car market for some time, but in May it hit an impasse in negotiations with the government over tariffs and other issues. India’s Economic Times reported last month that one of Musk’s other companies, SpaceX, would seek government permission to offer its Starlink satellite internet service there.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/opinion/elon-musk-twitter-free-speech-india.html? auth=login-google1tap&login=google1tap&smid=share- url&unlocked_article_code=GhdOtxTJNL_LGexve9SiWf17EppMzzZnGD6_PJyQf9PZadFfN5WC6 12NtVCwgCOxvovJ9QoStaYJRG6K6oi-kFw6LMO8gK3DEal4_ZXypdSX5gZemhEj- 5qwEOSTGGgQt3B5-mjRanURR0bNCa33CD7fA3aA_XlVBxtlfJ0wHwXlfn0Vd_i- Gu4sOx1wj84UyVRZ_yMyA5svphOUIXvCPirIyn1DN13ZeJxmlqqnxvzDaXTi3H7hLKG7OH10xGo5 7Ktd3gj5qrp7q_GZfi-6fjowfwwDXrAYchVNyBK0aCtMjWt921bhF- UMbvus56MECeMLs3c_s1OnTgE5IyW_3qyxUbKNoatddujG3Bk

     

    That the Government of India is averse to free speech that is critical is not new. That the Government of India and the political party which controls it has spent the last eight and a half years tightening the noose on an independent media is not new either. Musk’s various moves to change Twitter will only be of advantage to right-wing oppressors, if he carries on the way he started.

    I can hear the screams and shouts about how other governments controlled by other political parties have also attempted to control the media.

    The issue is of degrees.

    And from that perspective, no one yet even comes close to what the Modi government and the BJP have done to destroy India’s democratic foundation.

    Polgreen has looked at Musk’s destructive efforts from the point of view of what she calls “fragile democracies” like India and sadly, that is what we have become in the past eight years. The capitulation of the mainstream media is definitely one of the main reasons for this fragility, and we have discussed this over and over again. But Twitter also gave a platform to marginalised voices which countered – to some extent – the media’s lack of engagement with democracy as well as the growing power of rightwing trolls and regressive mindsets.

    Musk’s actions only embolden these sections of society which aim to restore old systems of patriarchy and control. He appears to have little understanding of how technology works in social media platforms. And like Mark Zuckerberg’s early attempts to use India’s population base to control internet usage like his “Free Basics” plan, for instance, Musk also has his Starlink agenda. Many of the arguments to describe Musk are much like those used for Zuckerberg in those days.

    The Indian media is largely absent here as well – in decoding Musk, social media and Twitter for its readers and viewers. The reasons are obvious: no commitment to free speech, fear of money and fear of power.

    This piece by journalists Aaron Rupar and Noah Berlatsky provide intriguing insights into Musk’s mind:

    https://aaronrupar.substack.com/p/elon-musk-destroying-twitter-why

    Why am I persisting with this theme?

    Because the shrinking of spaces for free speech is not dangerous for just journalists, activists, the marginalised, even the radical, it is eventually dangerous for everyone. Getting trapped in stifling, controlled environments has never benefitted humanity. It has only helped the controller to the detriment of everyone else.

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.