Govt summons food-delivery firms
What's the news?
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has summoned Swiggy, Zomato, Foodpanda and Uber Eats, following complaints from restaurants that these companies are engaging in “deep discounting” and “predatory pricing”. Another complaint is that aggregators have launched their own private labels that, restaurants allege, is eating into offline players’ business.
What's happening in the space?
India’s food ordering sector has seen partial rationalisation in the past six months. Market leaders Swiggy and Zomato continue to burn large amounts of cash to compete with each other while cab aggregators Uber and Ola, which had thrown their hats into the space, cut spending drastically after burning through millions of dollars with little to show for it in terms of topline enhancement.
The department wants both sides - restaurants and online players – to “discuss mutual areas of interest and develop viable solutions for equitable growth in the industry”
The vernacular social media battle
What's the news?
Social media rivals Helo and ShareChat, who are fighting it out for first-time Internet users in the regional language space, are offering money to users if they bring friends and family on board. Helo will transfer Rs 10 and ShareChat will offer Rs 15 through payments application Paytm, for every new user they get via referrals
What's the significance?
This move comes at a time of increased competition in India's social media and content landscape as Indian, Chinese and American applications battle to win the next billion users in the country. Around 90% of new Internet users in India are not proficient in English, according to Google's former India head Rajan Anandan.
While paying for referrals leads to more downloads, it may not be the most effective way to find continued engagement — the most important metric for possible advertisers on social media platforms.
Video KYC for financial services firms
What's the news?
The Reserve Bank of India is likely to soon release video KYC guidelines for financial services companies, following multiple conversations with industry representatives on remote onboarding of customers. Industry executives said the norms could be out within the next month.
Why is it important?
The new-age lenders were the most affected when remote customer onboarding through Aadhaar was stopped after the Supreme Court banned private companies from accessing the biometric database. It has also been a major hindrance for mobile wallet companies. Digital KYC allows for customer onboarding in a couple of minutes, while a physical process takes a few days.
Apple India iPhone sales dry up
What's the news?
Apple is staring at its weakest year since 2015, with iPhone shipments falling a sharp 42% in the January-March quarter from a year before. Although shipments rose threefold in April from levels in March owing to massive discounts, they declined in May and June, underlining Apple’s struggles in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market.
What are they doing?
Apple may be preparing to treat India more as a production hub than a significant market, with plans to scale up local manufacturing amid US-China trade tensions. The Cupertino-based tech giant is likely to start manufacturing its higher-end phones locally through Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, with an initial monthly capacity of 250,000 devices.
Ola gets $11M funding
What's the news?
Ola’s parent company ANI Technologies has raised $11 million in fresh funding from a set of new investors including Swedish DIG Investment Ab, US-based Deshe Holdings and the two founders of Dubai-based Jabbar Internet Group.
Why does this matter?
Ola has been engaged in a race to raise capital while at the same time diversifying its investor base to save itself from ceding too much control to its largest shareholder SoftBank. That said, its EV mobility offshoot Ola Electric Mobility recently raised $250 million from SoftBank at a $1 billion valuation.