In no particular order, here are MediaNama’s top 10 stories of the week ended 17th December 2017
MediaNama would like to thank its sponsors: Info Edge, PhonePe & E2E, for their support.
Obopay gets a wallet licence from the Reserve Bank of India
Payments company Obopay has received a wallet licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and it looks like the company wants to beef up its operations in India in India. The licence was given in October 2017 and is valid up to 31 December, 2022, the RBI website showed. Read it here
Mobile Internet shutdown in North Kashmir
Less than a week since MediaNama’s open house discussion on Internet shutdowns in Delhi, mobile Internet was shut down again in Kashmir, the Daily Excelsior reports. What’s interesting is that shutdown includes also includes BSNL. Kashmiri journalists in the open discussion pointed that BSNL partially evades network shutdowns since it’s used by bureaucrats and police. Read it here
Payments company Stripe starts India operations in beta; Merchant fees?
Payments company Stripe is beginning its operations in India and will be starting an invite-only beta with a group of companies. “These businesses will help us test our platform in the Indian market and provide feedback on features that we’ll need to build to support all Indian businesses looking to accept online payments and run their companies on Stripe,” Anand Balaji, India lead for the company said in a blog post. Read it here
Xiaomi may bring electric bikes, payments bank to India
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has made a filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) in India which offers an insight into its roadmap for expansion in India which includes plans to sell electric vehicles, laptops and set up a payments bank. In a statement to Medianama, a Xiaomi spokesperson said, “I would like to clarify that the regulatory filings from Xiaomi only indicate a change in the objects clause of Xiaomi’s memorandum of association to detail any product which Xiaomi might choose to launch and sell in India in the future. Read it here
Google beats Facebook, becomes top source of referrals
Google has beaten Facebook to reclaim the title of the main source of external page views for publishers in 2017. Facebook had displaced Google as the top source of referral a few years ago but a report by Parse.ly, a digital analytics company says that referrals from Google went up by 17% while the same dropped for Facebook by 25% in this calendar year. Read it here
Aadhaar linking to bank accounts and PAN put off from December 31 deadline
The linking of Aadhaar to bank accounts and PAN card has been put off by the government from the deadline of December 31, 2017. In a gazette notification, dated December 12, the ministry of finance said that citizens will have to link Aadhaar to bank accounts and PAN ” by such date as may be notified by the Central Government” instead of the earlier deadline. Read it here
Income Tax department conducts surveys at nine bitcoin exchange
The income tax department has conducted surveys across nine bitcoin exchanges across the country, reports Mint and Inc42. The publications added that I-T department officials from Bangalore visited exchanges in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi, and Gurgaon. Read it here
Shemaroo’s digital revenue up 42.5% YoY; YouTube monetization hit
Shemaroo’s digital media revenues stood Rs 34.2 crores for the quarter ended September 2017 (Q2FY18), up 42.5% from 24 crores in Q2-FY17. In the preceding quarter, the company reported digital media revenue of Rs 28.53 crore. Read it here
Facebook is tweaking News Feed algorithm to surface more videos now
Social network Facebook is tweaking its algorithm for its News Feed again and this time it is gearing it to surface more videos for users as it is using it as a springboard for the Watch video platform. The company will show more videos on News Feed that people return to watch from the same publisher or creator week after week. Read it here
Myntra plans to setup brick-and-mortar beauty retail chain: report
Myntra, the country’s biggest online fashion retailer, is planning to start a chain of brick-and-mortar stores selling multi-brand cosmetics and wellness items, the Economic Times reports. Read it here
