Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Digital payments firm Paytm has held talks with US technology giant, Microsoft for fresh funding as the company looks to boost its war chest to fight growing competition in the sector, two people in the know said. The proposed fund raise, which may amount to around $100 million (Rs 760 crore), is […]
View: Integrate local kirana stores in the supply chain of e-commerce
By Pradeep S. Mehta and Sidharth Narayan, CUTS International The government of India has been keen to integrate the local Kirana stores within the e-commerce ecosystem. Talks on it had been ongoing between Ministry of Commerce, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), and e-commerce service providers. […]
Udaan lays off at least 3,000 contract workers
Udaan, a business-to-business commerce online startup, has laid off about 10-15%, or an estimated 3,000-3,500, of its contract staff, according to company executives and staffing agencies that ET spoke to. The job cut is largely driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has significantly dented the company’s revenue from non-essential categories including electronics and apparel. Udaan’s […]
Ban on non-essential sales continues for e-commerce firms
The government on Saturday said that e-commerce players such as Flipkart and Amazon would be allowed to sell only essential goods on their platforms even as offline stores selling non-essential items would be allowed to operate. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued a clarification stating the same just hours after issuing guidelines on Friday […]
Facebook takes aim at Zoom with Messenger Rooms
Facebook on Friday unveiled a new video chat service with virtual “rooms” where people can pop in to visit friends, aiming at users turning to the popular Zoom platform during the pandemic. Through the Facebook Messenger application, users will be able to start video call sessions that as many as 50 friends can join and […]
View: Raise the bar for online liquor sale
By Aman Taneja & Anirudh Rastogi, Ikigai LawWith more than another week of nationwide lockdown to go, and the Indian economy continuing to face unprecedented batterings due to businesses being shut for more than amonth, the prohibition on the sale of liquor has become a contentious issue. Keeping practical issues like social distancing and the […]
Coming soon: E-commerce platform for small traders
The Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT) along with small retailers group Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) are setting up an e-commerce platform to help the local kirana stores take orders online for essentials and provide last mile contactless delivery. In a media release by CAIT, it said apart from DPIIT […]
ETtech Top 5: Urban India flocks to TikTok, Jio-Facebook’s differing policy views & more
Happy Friday! Thanks to the lockdown, urban India is glued to TikTok. Some users are posting goofy videos while confined in their homes. Illustration: Rahul Awasthi No more ‘cringe-worthy’ Until recently, a section of online users frowned upon TikTok’s content and labelled it “cringe-worthy” even as users from tier-II and -III cities gained rewards and […]
India’s once lavish weddings are now taking place on Zoom
By Saritha Rai Sushen Dang, 26, and his fiancee, Keerti Narang, dreamed of making their wedding an affair to remember — but not like this. Instead of hundreds of guests descending on a wildlife resort for a multi-day revelry with cocktail parties and elaborate feasts, the couple got married over the video conferencing app Zoom. […]
Mark Zuckerberg just gave Asia’s richest man a sorely needed win
By P R Sanjai, Baiju Kalesh and Manuel Baigorri With the pandemic battering assets and oil nosediving, Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani needed a win to stem the investor exodus from Reliance Industries, the energy conglomerate he’s been trying to reinvent. This week, Facebook and its Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg delivered just that. The U.S. […]