ETtech Morning Dispatch, 27 Jan. 2020: Top tech news to start your day

Good morning, ETtech reader.

Several among the 59 Chinese apps are weighing legal action against an India ban. Apple sold a record number of iPhones in the country during the last three months of 2020. Tech firms are hiring for the future—some of them may never see their office, though. And, the parent company of TikTok—the most high-profile app that was banned in India—has reportedly clocked record revenues.

Here’s a look at the top tech news to start your day.

1. Chinese apps may go to court against India ban

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Several among the 59 Chinese apps that have been permanently banned by India are weighing the option of challenging the order in a court of law, according to multiple people in the know. The banned apps including TikTok, SHAREit, UC Browser, shopping app Club Factory as well as Tencent’s WeChat had been served an interim ban order in June.

Driving the news: Last week, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) sent a notice to the companies saying that the ban will continue. Other apps which are reported to be permanently banned under Section 69(A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, include BIGO Live and some from the stable of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp.

2. Apple’s record quarter in India

Indians are joining the Apple ecosystem by the hordes.

iPhone shipments in India crossed the 1.5-million mark for the first time in the last three months of 2020, doubling Apple’s smartphone market share to 4%, according to market research firms.

Pandemic Gains: Apple also had its best year in the country as annual sales volumes exceeded 3.2 million in 2020, a 60% growth over 2019 sales. Apple’s market share stood at 2.4% in 2020. The company’s other products including MacBooks, Apple Watches and AirPods also registered record sales, the research firms told The Economic Times.

While the older iPhone 11 and XR models constituted the majority of Apple’s sales in the December quarter, demand is slowly shifting to the latest 5G-enabled iPhone 12 series.

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3. IT firms building bench strength for incoming demand


IT services providers have stepped up hiring for the bench to create a talent pool.

Why it matters: In industry parlance, bench refers to a phase when employees are temporarily not involved in a project or are transitioning from one to another. The employees, including full-stack developers, are not being directly deployed on projects as soon as they join.

The recruitment is meant to meet rising demand from global development centres and digital transformation deals.

Who’s hiring? TCS, Cognizant, Wipro, Infosys, HCL Technologies and others are creating such a pool of benched employees, taking cognisance of a surge in demand.

4. Office space consolidation in WFH era

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With work from home being the preferred working mode for a large part of the workforce, firms are consolidating office spaces with many opting for larger one or two offices instead of having multiple small facilities.

Driving the trend: Already, companies like Paytm, CavinKare, Ola and TCS are rejigging their office spaces. This trend is likely to continue at least through 2021, as more companies in the tech and startup spaces—along with a few conglomerates, are consolidating offices—according to experts at Aon and Mercer.

There's also an emerging trend of companies leasing bigger offices to help ensure social distancing amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

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5. Govt drawing up guidelines for OTT censorship in India

The government is gearing up to introduce broad content guidelines for streaming apps— commonly known as over-the-top (OTT) platforms.

Why it matters: The process has been consultative so far, but repeated controversies around content shown on streaming platforms have forced the government to “reassert” its position on some control over the sector that has been completely unregulated till now, senior officials in the government said.

The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, which had rejected the self-regulation framework proposed by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in September last year, is working on specific legislative changes for which it has already set in motion consultations at the highest levels involving officials from at least three ministries.

6. ByteDance’s Revenue More Than Doubled in 2020

You might have thought TikTok’s owner ByteDance had a tough year in 2020, what with President Trump trying to ban TikTok and India actually taking that step. But none of that mattered to ByteDance’s actual business, which grew like gangbusters.

ByteDance’s revenue last year more than doubled to $37 billion, The Information reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter, as robust growth of ad sales by its Chinese apps offset any impact from India’s ban on TikTok and the US’s threat of a ban.

And it wasn’t just the top line that mushroomed: the firm also generated more than $7 billion in operating profit last year, compared with less than $4 billion the previous year.

Global Picks We Are Reading

How Atlanta’s Calendly turned a scheduling nightmare into a $3B startup: One big theme in tech right now is the rise of services to help us keep working through lockdowns, office closures, and other Covid-19 restrictions. The “future of work”—cloud services, productivity apps, communications—has become “the way we work now”. And companies that have identified ways to help with this are seeing a boom.

Today comes news from a startup that has been a part of that trend: Calendly, a popular cloud-based service that people use to set up and confirm meeting times with others, has closed an investment of $350 million from OpenView Venture Partners and Iconiq. (TechCrunch)

Part of US East Coast hit by internet outages: Internet users in the Washington-to-Boston corridor reported widespread outages on Tuesday, affecting service for both broadband and internet content.

Many Americans have been unable to access remote learning and telework because of the outages, which have affected ISPs including Verizon FiOS, Charter and Comcast as well as internet services including Google, YouTube, Amazon's AWS and Zoom. (Axios)

Zuckerberg’s Biden problem: Before the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, and QAnon and Proud Boys, Mark Zuckerberg had the world at his feet.

In fact, at the start of 2017 he decided to tour America. His goal was to speak to people in all 50 states—to get out and engage with real Americans. It was seen by some as the start of a possible 2020 presidential bid—something he always denied. His potential candidacy was seriously debated in the press—he had money, drive, and power.

This week, Joe Biden took the job that many believe Mark Zuckerberg secretly craves, or at least craved. And in doing so, he completed a reverse metamorphosis for Zuckerberg. A butterfly no longer, he finds himself alienated politically. (BBC News)