Siddharth Reddy, Managing Director, SurfGold India Pvt. Ltd
Loyalty marketing is actually a long-term strategy to identify, retain and grow profit for a company. They are called by multiple names; one is loyalty programme, one is data-driven marketing, one is relationship marketing, and there are affinity programmes too. The strategy is simply to identify and retain your best customers and grow value for them.
Loyalty marketing is actually a long-term strategy to identify, retain and grow profit for a company. They are called by multiple names; one is loyalty programme, one is data-driven marketing, one is relationship marketing, and there are affinity programmes too. The strategy is simply to identify and retain your best customers and grow value for them.
Siddharth Reddy got associated with SurfGold in 2000 to start its operations in India. SurfGold has many top notch MNCs like Hewlett Packard, Oberoi Hotels, Microsoft, Reliance ADAG, Nortel, FedEx, etc., as its customers in India. SurfGold India has won both international and domestic awards for the implementation of CRM strategies.
Reddy has done his B.E. in Computer Science and is also armed with an MBA in Marketing from CMRD, University of Poona. He began his career in sales with Emery Worldwide (now part of UPS) in early 1997. He was promoted in 1999 as Branch Manager for the company’s Bangalore operations.
The opportunity to start a company and build it from scratch is what led him to get into the loyalty marketing industry with the SurfGold association. In an interview with exchange4media’s Sumita Patra, Reddy shares more about the industry. Excerpts:
Q. You joined the company in 2000. What is the nature of your involvement with the company?
First of all, India is a 100 per cent subsidiary of SurfGold Singapore. It’s not a joint venture. My interest in SurfGold was to co-find the company in India and build the company to a scale where we will be among the top.
Q. Give us a brief background of your company. When did the company enter India?
Eugene Lee, CEO of SurfGold Group, and Choun Chee Kong, COO of SurfGold from Singapore, started SurfGold in 1999. The operations kicked off somewhere around January-February 2000. We started out when Internet was in its infancy here; we modelled our business on the mix of some of the US and European companies which were doing similar business and were successful at that time. They realised those kind of businesses were relevant in the Asia-Pacific, and then decided to start a similar business in the region. But the way we started and the kind of businesses we were focussed on were quite different from what it is today. The only difference has been the kind of customers we were talking to; however, the fundamentals still remain the same. We primarily focussed on companies doing business over the Internet, commerce and dotcom companies because we realised that the switching cost of the consumer on the Internet is only a click. We realised that companies doing business on the Internet would put their money behind loyalty programmes as that is essential in their marketing mix. You are right; the markets are quite different. However, the customers are more or less similar. We all talk about human behaviour. Their needs, their wants are pretty much homogeneous wherever we go. We realised that the fundamentals of building loyalty remain the same. We helped the companies build loyalty in the Internet space. There was reward on customer response. Clients identified what the customers were doing and in exchange, they were rewarding the customers with points. We actually started our business similarly in Asia and we started a programme called SurfGold rewards in all the countries we operated in. It is purely an Internet based coalition programme. It is literally the first of its kind in Asia. I was actually into logistics prior to joining SurfGold. I was in the marketing side of logistics. Getting an opportunity to start a company at an early stage and watch the dotcom boom drove me to join hands with Eugene Lee and Choun Chee Kong to start the company. There has been no benchmarking done as such because it’s a fairly nascent concept. The term loyalty is a very generic one, so everyone has his/her opinion about loyalty. I would look at loyalty marketing at two levels of business. One is the customer you sell to, and the other is the dealer. Many years ago, each manufacturer had his own set of dealers. That has changed today with manufacturers having multi-brand dealers. In my opinion, a lot of customers undervalue the relationship with a dealer; they look at it purely as a transactional engagement. They look at dealer marketing programmes as a stepchild. They are purely looked at as a rewards programme in a transactional manner. The opportunity is already there, it just needs to move up to a different level.
Consumers adopting technology and accepting mutual communication using technology will change the growth in the business. This could be through SMS, over the phone, or through the Internet. More and more consumers are accepting or allowing clients to reach them using these kinds of communication and willing to transact through these channels of communication. More and more clients have started investing in loyalty programmes. Clients have started seeing the opportunity; it’s a bit hazy today but it will start clearing up once the consumers are more demanding. With the coalition programme, we hosted the entire platform wherein there was a generic programme done by us, and various clients could come in and be a part of it. The advantage was that a customer, who would earn points at multiple stores or multiple websites, would collect all the points in a single account. The coalition programme adds value to the customer. The programme was very successful in every country, but it was shortlived because most of the companies went bust by early 2000.
In today’s day, this is very tough. We have to accept the fact that consumers have become more promiscuous and they are not happy with just one brand. A behavioural change is noticed among the consumers in the way they approach a product. Marketers have to see that they continue to be relevant to the customers. Each consumer will probably have a basket of the favourite brands in the same category; marketers need to recognise this very clearly and not expect this to be just an aberration. They have to come up with strategies to stay relevant to the consumers. It’s not a one-time strategy that you develop; it’s about continuous informed decisions that you make by observing the behaviour of the consumer. It is a process over time. That is the big reality that marketers have to wake up to. We compete with companies like Carlson and ICLP. These are global companies, which have a strong regional presence in Asia. Let me bring in another set of competitors we have. Loyalty is a part of direct marketing and the people who have been guarding this are direct marketing agencies. Loyalty marketing traditionally has and will continue to run by direct marketing agencies in every country they operate in and there are specialist companies too. DM business traditionally has been very communication-driven; what agencies lack are the technological expertise and the implementation capability.
Loyalty marketing is actually a long-term strategy to identify, retain and grow profits for a company. They are called by multiple names; one is loyalty programme, one is data-driven marketing, one is relationship marketing, and there are affinity programmes too. All these are part of the umbrella of loyalty marketing strategy. The strategy is simply to identify and retain your best customers and grow value for them. The way of implementing it could be multiple, but the end result of a strategy is to build customer loyalty. We get a lot of referrals from investing customers. Secondly, people get to know about us by doing research on Google. We have not done a very good job of communicating about ourselves. Companies who conduct loyalty programmes may not be more than 1,000. This will continue to remain with the enterprise customer base that is much larger; and approaching them through mass media may not be cost-effective. So it would predominantly be through referrals. We would continue to push for that because I think that is the best testimonial, especially from the business-to-business scenario. We will continue to evangelise on loyalty marketing with respect to that. There is a huge opportunity in Asia in the area of employee loyalty. We have seen companies dedicated to only this in a very large way in the US because it’s a very mature industry. In India, we see a big gap there. It’s definitely something that we are interested in. Second is technology. We always want to be at the forefront of delivering cutting-edge technology at affordable prices to customers. So we will continue to innovate there. We are also looking at bringing in mobile loyalty. Other than that, we will continue to work hard to develop and grow the business. Loyalty marketing is definitely relevant for the gaming industry. Gaming is very addictive. Within the gamers, there are the casual and hardcore ones. Our task is to target, communicate and motivate both these segments. I think in terms of loyalty marketing strategy, it is important to see how do we ensure that these gamers stick to zapak.com as the preferred gaming portal in India. We have to get into an evangelist mode in the process. We have to implement the strategies to a stage where they are relevant too. Because I think from 2001 to 2005, the going was not easy and our priorities were very different. In the first years of operation, it was battle for survival; the approach to business was very different. We had a few clients who helped us get good references and that kept growing. This year, we will do a lot more to talk about ourselves and talk about loyalty marketing in a much larger way. We will see tractions from hi-tech, financial services, automotive sectors in a small way. A new concept called ‘employee loyalty’ will evolve this year. Employee loyalty is a very mature industry in the US and Europe. We will focus on employee loyalty. The logistics sector is also interested. Mobile will be a key driver for loyalty programmes this year. It is in a crude form at this stage but it will mature next year. I think the good thing about this business is that the concept is not new. It’s a very well established concept as far as the clients are concerned. So we don’t have to evangelise on the concept much. We have to evangelise on the reality that can be implemented now in a cost-effective manner. I think that is what we need to talk more about, and not necessarily about the benefits of loyalty marketing because people are already aware of it. We need to talk more about the revenues to implement these programmes now. That should be our agenda. It’s a very mature industry abroad. It’s way ahead, in terms of the concept being customer-centric. But like I said earlier, the fundamentals are very much the same. We talk about human behaviour, whether it is in Europe or Africa or Asia or India — their inherent and intrinsic behaviours are similar wherever you go. As such, I don’t see a difference in the kind of programme that I run globally or the kind of programmes that I run in India. The tactic and the strategy have to be fitted to the cultural nuances in each country-scenario. That would be the only difference. It’s a well-established fact that existing customers, their repeat sales to the company and profit are much higher than a new customer. I think the benefits of a customer loyalty program is well established, which can generate incremental profits and higher value to a client, and not just for revenues. That is the core-desired result of a loyalty programme. In some report in the US, it was found that 50 per cent of the budget is spent in interactive and personalised communication, which is basically loyalty marketing. In India, that is still very skewed towards advertising. So there is a huge growth in non-traditional spends. People are moving away from mass communication to one-to-one communication. If you have to reach out to different customers in a personalised way, you need to have data about them, and that can be only captured through a loyalty-marketing programme.
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Q. You mentioned that the business model remains fundamentally the same, but you learnt it all from the West. Can you elaborate how the US as a market is different from India?
Q. What led you to get into the loyalty marketing industry?
Q. How big is the opportunity for loyalty marketing in India?
On the consumer side, it is still nascent because running a programme is still not viable owing to the lack of technology. Even if the technology exists, consumers have not yet migrated to a level that you can communicate to them. So that part of the business is still nascent and there is no benchmarking or value that has been put to it.
Q. What needs to be done in order to fill the need gap?
Q. Tell us something more about the coalition programme.
So, potentially, our source of revenue, the kind of customers we were talking to, the kind of language we used to talk to them — all of it completely changed. We changed the way we did business and the people with whom we did business. We were able to build the legacy in the first one-and-a-half years of operation by creating a very robust technology platform. We carried that into the brick and mortar domain and started talking to customers. What we realised is that there was a huge gap in the market because until now in India, we never went to a customer asking about his interest in a loyalty programme; even today nobody says no to loyalty marketing. They all want to do it because they all value what a customer loyalty programme can deliver.
That time we realised that technology can change things. However, the only critical factor then was that not many people had taken to the Internet. The growth was very slow. We found favour from the hi-tech industries because these companies were at the forefront of technology adoption; their partners and customers were more or less online, already exchanging communication through emails. They came to us and that’s how we started working in the IT industry as our first bunch of customers. Today, we work with Microsoft and Hewlett- Packard, and have been doing so for many years now. Loyalty programmes are long-term. In the last two years, we didn’t see a change in the portfolio of clients; we have clients from logistics, gaming, and from the automotive sector too.
The way technology is bringing down costs, and bringing customers closer to clients is amazing. We will continue to invest and innovate in a lot in technology.
Q. How can consumers be motivated to be loyal to a particular brand?
Q. Which are the companies you compete with and what kind of differentiation do you bring to the table?
No DM agency in the country has its own intellectual property with regard to a loyalty platform; whereas we have it. We license that to our client at a fraction of cost so that they don’t have to invest in developing such a robust application. We offer application to our clients on the Application Service Provider model, which basically means that the client does not have to worry about technology. We maintain and host the technology, any upgradation is done by us and the clients just have to pay us the license fee as a rental per month. Our depth of experience and ability to deliver technology at a very low cost are some of the huge value that we bring to the table.
Q. How do you define the concept of loyalty marketing?
Q. How do you get clients? Do you also pitch for business?
Q. Will you be primarily focussing on conducting workshops to create awareness among the people?
Q. Share with us your company’s future plans.
Q. You handle the Zapak.com account. How do you see the relevance of loyalty marketing for the gaming industry?
Q. Why is that?
Q. Which sectors will show more interest towards loyalty marketing in the future?
Q. Loyalty marketing is by and large a fairly new concept in India. How do you plan to develop and grow this concept in India?
Q. How do you differentiate the loyalty marketing scenario in India vis-à-vis the global market?
Q. How does this concept help in maximising the revenues?
Q. Where do you see this industry headed?
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Scrolling up or down: Where is India's digital news business headed?
As advertisers tightened their purse strings, media players faced a muted growth on their digital platforms in Q1 FY24. Veterans from the industry share the cause & effect of the situation
As the first two quarters for the fiscal year 2023-24 come to a wrap, news publishers are not only experiencing tectonic shifts in their print and broadcast media business, but their digital arm too is facing dynamic consumer shifts.
In an increasingly converged world, besides making sense on ROI matrices, digital offers extended reach at a very low cost, an ability to engage with the viewers in a two-way conversation, co-opt them into the content creation process, empower them by giving them a voice and retain them. The cost and business efficiencies clearly operate at many levels, says Sanjay Trehan, a digital and new media advisor.
According to a study by Reuters Institute, India is a strongly mobile-focused market where 72 percent readers access news through smartphones and just 35 percent via computers. However, despite the glittery user penetration numbers, advertisers, it seems, are not finding it worth investing their money in digital news publisher platforms.
For NDTV, the revenue was down by 35 percent in Q1 of 2023-24 due to lower advertising spends both on broadcasting and digital. Nevertheless, despite low advertisement spends, digital business remained profitable. For Network18 as well, revenue was flattish during the quarter as a weak advertising environment had an impact on the digital segment.
Jagran Prakashan Media’s Q1 FY24 digital revenue stood at Rs 14.43 crores as against Rs 16.78 crores in Q1-23. Mahendra Mohan Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, Jagran Prakashan Limited, stated in the financial results that “Digital business had nearly the same revenue as in Q1 of the previous year partly because of unfavourable market conditions and partly because of inability to monetise the consumer base to the expected level.”
The Indian Express experienced a slowdown in ad revenue in the last two quarters but subscribers and events business performed well, according CEO Sanjay Sindhwani.
Focussing on sector-wise advertisers, Sindhwani underlined that the IT sector, which spends majorly on digital, has been severely impacted in the economic slowdown. The auto sector has supply chain issues where their order books are full but delivery is an issue. Now, because they are overbooked, advertising is not required for them, he said. Edtech is somewhat tumbling now, which has also resulted in layoffs and cost-cuts. In fact, the whole startup sector has been cost cutting heavily. Gaming was still big but has not seen much growth in the recent past due to regulatory issues and their restrictions on advertising.
For Republic, over the past year or so, there has been a significant shift in direct advertising towards digital publishers along with the always-growing network demand, shared Tapan Sharma, Head of Digital, Republic. The network’s revenue has also grown alongside the continuous growth of revenue in the industry.
Sharma believes the drop in advertisers is happening because advertisers and agencies have now become more aware, vigilant, and methodical with digital ad spending and campaign management. They are looking for better Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and improving campaign efficiency.
“As a result, publishers who have not prepared themselves well to address the ever-evolving media planning and buying environment may be facing the challenges of monetising via advertising,” added Sharma.
Digital business sustains on two factors - Advertisers and subscribers. On one hand, where the advertisers are declining, publishers are generating quality content to increase their subscriber base who are ready to pay for paywalled content.
Trehan added, “For content behind paywalls to work, it has to be exclusive, differentiated, value-added and premium in nature viz. data and research. The more one has this kind of content, the better will be their subscription traction. Based on this Karmic principle, NYT today has about ten million subscribers, perhaps the most of any publisher in the world.”
The advertising revenue is further split into two - direct and programmatic. Publishers who have been heavily dependent on the latter have faced declining revenues because they have lost the traffic due to certain changes in Google and Facebook’s policies.
Pradeep Gairola, Business Head- Digital, The Hindu, has seen a positive growth in subscription revenue but not a large one. Fifty percent of their revenue comes via subscriptions and paywall content. The direct to programmatic advertising ratio for Hindu currently is at 70:30 split.
But there are obstacles for publishers who are more dependent on subscribers than advertisers too. Major one being, the subscriber revenue is not about acquisition but retention. And, Indian publishers have retention rates much lower than international publishers.
Gairola highlighted, “When we approached the business ages ago, we lacked the wisdom that this is not an acquisition business but a retention business. Retention depends a lot on what kind of audience you have been able to acquire. Secondly, what have you done to ensure that the audience builds a relationship with you and builds a habit around you.”
It is a pertinent industry problem because Indians are accustomed to free content. Unlike other countries, news in India has always been fragmented as an industry and has never charged a penny to its readers. This is also why The New York Times, The Guardian, and other international publishers have higher retention rates.
According to Sharma, the newspaper industry has not really made any significant increment in the subscription fee for the past many years. Whereas a digital news consumer was never asked to pay anything to read or watch news by Indian digital news publishers at large.
“Additionally, the sheer amount of content we are generating, we are not able to communicate or showcase the same to the reader. We haven't been able to establish to the reader how we add value,” shared The Hindu executive.
Further Sindhwani added, as a news publication, if one has to do credible content then it costs money. Customers need to appreciate and value good content in order to be able to pay money for it. The sooner the audience will understand that, the sooner they will be able to differentiate between free content and paid quality content.
Trehan also observed a trend of upward revision of subscription rates for digital when bundled with other value offerings. As more and more products are being bundled along with the main offering, rates are being hiked. Games, puzzles, premium content, exclusive videos are now becoming a part of the 'All Access' subscription.
Sharma believes news subscriptions in India will see significant growth over the next two to four years and publishers will certainly need to focus on offering discrete quality content consistently for paid users.
“The Indian digital news readers are now much more evolved and so is the industry. Within the next few years, the industry will experience habit creation amongst the users of paying for a digital news subscription. This has already started happening in the metros and will further grow in the rest of the markets,” he added.
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Twitter suffers massive outage for 2 hours
The problem reportedly started around 6.30 am on Thursday
Thousands of Twitter users were not able to login to their accounts on Thursday morning as the social media site experienced a massive outage for nearly two hours. The problem, which started around 6.30 am, lasted till round 8.30 am.
Users were unable to log in on Twitter website. However, the microblogging site was working fine on mobile phones.
According to outage tracking website Downdetector.com., User reports indicate Twitter is having problems since 7:13 EST" . Some users also reportedly complained that their Twitter notifications were not working.
In India, Twitter users are getting this message while trying to access the website: “Something went wrong, but don’t fret — it’s not your fault. Let’s try again," with options to refresh or log out.
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How 5G is set to draw more advertisers to emerging tech & gaming
The gaming industry, the fastest-growing space in digital advertising, has the most to gain from introduction of 5G, given that India is a mobile-first country in every segment, say industry players
The 5G spectrum auctions, set to begin on July 26, will see a total of 72,097.85 MHz of spectrum worth at least Rs 4.3 lakh crore put under the hammer. With Adani Data Networks now also staking its claim, in what was already a heated contest between Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and VI (formerly Vodafone Idea), the amount is expected to exceed Rs 1 trillion, according to various industry experts.
The impact on the telecom industry aside, India’s subsequent adoption of 5G is expected to have huge implications on India’s growing digital economy, as well as its booming advertising and entertainment industry, which is expected to reach Rs 4,30,401 crore by 2026 at 8.8% CAGR, as recently reported by PwC's Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2022-2026.
Mitesh Kothari, Co-founder and CCO, White Rivers Media, believes that consumers now understand internet technologies better than ever before. People who were cost-driven are becoming experience-driven and are actually willing to pay more for a better experience.
“5G is set to bring an immersive AR/VR, 4K video and mobile gaming experience to entice consumers. Plans clubbed with digital services are more likely to penetrate as people are more willing to pay for an ‘all-included’ experience. And, of course, 4G is going to be around anyway, so the ones who cannot afford 5G will always have an option,” he says.
On the impact of raised prices on the Indians who are about to come online, Ashwarya Garg, Co-founder, HYPD Marketing Technologies, said, “We have grown from 250M internet users to 900M internet users today. While the country today has 4G, there are still areas and localities where only 3G prevails. And in a few places, there is only 2G. It is roti, kapda, makaan and the internet today. So, there is no question about a dip in internet adoption,” he says.
Garg further says, “With the release of any new technology, there is a race for faster and quicker adoption. We will surely see a lot of ATL/BTL and influencer-led activities, campaigns specifically designed to educate and adopt on the 5G networks. We should expect a lot of activation via gaming creators, YouTubers, and artists popular on OTT platforms, all of whom would educate them about the end use case.”
Juhi Hajela, VP of Global Marketing at now.gg, points out that despite its massive growth and future potential, with only 47 per cent internet penetration, India is still growing its connected base. “Over the years, we observed that mobile internet connections emerged as a driving force for internet access in India. As a mobile-first country, improved mobile data connectivity will bring a new wave of consumers to utilize the high-speed internet.”
New Ball Game
And the gaming industry, which is the fastest growing space in digital advertising, has the most to gain, given that India is a mobile-first country, across every segment. Experts like Rohit Agarwal, Founder and Director of marketing agency Alpha Zegus, point out that in a country where mobile gaming dominates over 80 per cent of the online gaming and esports segment, there is no doubt that data speeds and data charges hold tremendous value in the growth of this industry.
“The industry has already seen a CAGR of about 37% in the past couple of years, and telecom operators like Jio, VI, Airtel, etc. have accelerated the growth with the introduction of 4G at a highly competitive price point. In the next five years, the CAGR is expected to hit close to 40%, and in my opinion, over 20% of this would be driven by the introduction of 5G, as 5G will allow gamers from remote parts of India to play high-quality games with ease,” says Agarwal.
This would allow tournament organizers to organize more localized events with higher participation and will be able to reach a wider viewing audience. This, in turn, will give brands more sponsorship opportunities, not only to reach out to a bigger audience base but also to experiment with more complex advertising formats which would otherwise be very data dependent.
Gaming creators and streamers will benefit from this improved speed. That would also mean 3G, 4G connectivity will become highly affordable, allowing more consumers to access it.
“India is heading toward becoming the top gaming country in the world. We expect that with 5G auctions, the existing internet service that is already affordable will become faster, allowing Indians to follow their gaming passion. However, limiting device specifications is a real challenge for some players,” says Halja, concluding, “We believe that mobile cloud gaming solution is an excellent fit for the industry, allowing gamers to pursue their passion without being limited by low-end devices.”
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Razorpay row: Cause for concern for other digital payment brands?
Industry experts say while online payment firms have to be sensitive about user data, the controversy is unlikely to have a lasting impact on brand image
The recent controversy surrounding Razorpay sharing AltNews donor data with the police has once again raised concerns around user privacy in digital domains. The internet has been standing divided for the past few days discussing the legalities and the impact of Razorpay’s move but could it have a lasting impact on the brand image or digital payments at large in the country? Marketing experts disagree.
Speaking to e4m, an industry expert mentioned that the agitation was not certainly only against Razorpay as a brand but about privacy laws or the lack of it. “The brand image might not get impacted in the longer run. Social media controversies die out as soon as they blow up. But yes, they must be making an effort to ensure their existing users and partners that their personal data is safe,” they added.
Rashid Ahmed, Head of Digital, Infectious Advertising had a similar response. “If there's a legally valid request by relevant authorities in India, it would be required of a business or service systems provider to provide requested user information, in accordance with the law. Most large digital enablement service providers have fairly thought through and detailed usage and privacy policies, and a request for data would likely have required a sign-off in consultation with their legal teams. Since the payment gateway provides services to a large number of businesses, it is unlikely that a volume of users who chose not to use the gateway will make any significant impact on the overall base.”
Privacy concerns to grow
However, the concerns around user privacy will only mount with increased user awareness. In fact, it’s not the first time that Razorpay or digital payment gateways have gotten into such a situation. Just a few weeks ago, Razorpay had complained that the company was unable to reconcile receipt of Rs 7.38 crore against 831 transactions as hackers and fraudulent customers stole the amount. And in May 2018, Paytm had come under fire for a similar situation after Cobrapost reported that it had shared personal data of users in Jammu & Kashmir with the Indian government. Albeit, the platform had denied any such claims.
Samsika Marketing Consultants MD Jagdeep Kapoor pointed out, “Privacy is going to be a concern but the platforms, which will keep working ethically and protecting the user data will see no harm in the long run. Brands really have to be sensitive about user data.”
Subscription-based news platforms safe
Asked if the whole controversy could bar people from subscribing to news outlets as data sharing with payment partners would be inevitable, the experts said that the decision would solely rely on the content that such publishers produce, and not on payment gateways.
Kapoor highlighted, “Any industry these days: be it the payment gateways or publishers, or hotels, are taking a lot of user data. You cannot avoid sharing your data and therefore the onus to safeguard it lies on these companies. If a publisher is not tampering with your personal data or sharing it outside, I don’t think users will not subscribe.”
However, Khan felt that the subscription-based model might take a hit. “Many transacting users also have their financial details such as cards, tokenized and set up with their preferred gateways. So, this may also propel businesses to opt for multiple payment gateway service providers.”
Additionally, publishers and any such service providers might look for multiple payment gateways to give users the choice of preference. “Businesses requiring digital payment gateway services will likely opt for multiple service providers, to mitigate against service unavailability, or user preference where gateways is concerned. Many transacting users also have their financial details such as cards, tokenized and set up with their preferred gateways. So, this may also propel businesses to opt for multiple payment gateway service providers,” Khan said.
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1 year of Google News Showcase in India: 130 publications part of the programme
Google News Showcase now supports 8 Indian languages.
Tech giant Google has signed deals with 80 media partners representing more than 130 publications for Google News Showcase, an online news experience programme. Launched last year in India with 30 publisher partners, Google News Showcase has completed one year in the country.
The tech giant's partners include Times Group, The Hindu Group, HT Digital Streams Ltd, Indian Express Group, ABP LIVE, India TV, NDTV, Zee News, Amar Ujala, Deccan Herald, Punjab Kesari, The Telegraph India, IANS, and ANI.
"This time last year, we announced a package of investments to support India’s news ecosystem, including launching Google News Showcase - our new product experience for readers and licensing program for news publishers," Google's Kate Beddoe, Director, News Partnerships, APAC, and Durga Raghunath, Head of India News Partnerships, said in an official blog.
"Since Google News Showcase launched in India last year, we’ve signed deals with more than 80 partners representing more than 130 publications, including national, regional, and local news organizations like Times Group, The Hindu Group, HT Digital Streams Ltd, Indian Express Group, ABP LIVE, India TV, NDTV, Zee News, Amar Ujala, Deccan Herald, Punjab Kesari, The Telegraph India, IANS and ANI. We continue to work towards adding more partners."
Google News Showcase has also expanded to more languages over the past year and now supports a total of 8 languages, including Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Bengali - along with English and Hindi. "We’ve also continued our work providing training and resources for news businesses and journalists, for example, GNI Startups Lab, GNI Newsroom Leadership Program, and GNI Advertising Lab," the blog reads. Update
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Amazon miniTV to premiere short film 'Sorry Bhaisaab' on December 16.
Directed and written by Suman Adhikary and Sumit Ghildiyal, the film has Gauahar Khan and Sharib Hashmi in lead roles
Amazon miniTV announces a short film – Sorry Bhaisaab, produced by Arré Studio featuring popular actors Gauahar Khan and Sharib Hashmi in lead roles. Directed and written by Suman Adhikary and Sumit Ghildiyal, Sorry Bhaisaab will premiere on 16th December for free, exclusively on Amazon miniTV on Amazon’s shopping app. The film is a relatable humorous take on the desires, motivations and aspirations of the middle class and their eternal quest for things to make their lives better.
“At Amazon miniTV, we always try to bring fresh, engaging and relatable content for viewers. We are delighted to partner with Arré Studio once again to bring yet another heartwarming and entertaining short film. This is a great addition to our library of award-winning short films”, said Harsh Goyal, Head of Amazon Advertising.
“Sorry Bhaisaab showcases the desires and aspirations of a common middle-class family with a relatable plot. This short film is a very special project for us, as at Arré, we endeavour to narrate different and unique stories that touch audiences’ hearts and entertain them thoroughly. We are delighted to collaborate with Amazon miniTV on this since it will give the film a wide reach across see millions of Indians from all parts of the country.” said Niyati Merchant, Co-Founder and COO, Arré................
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