Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Food delivery platforms Swiggy and Zomato, online services marketplace Urban Company and e-grocer Grofers have asked frontline staff to mandatorily use the government’s Aarogya Setu contact tracing app, while e-commerce heavyweights Amazon and Flipkart have also recommended that their workers do the same, despite concerns over the app’s privacy and security. “Since […]
Reliance Jio & Facebook differ on key policy issues
Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Facebook could find itself sparring with Reliance Jio in policy debates over how data is collected, stored and shared in India, said legal experts, as the two technology giants differ markedly in their stance on these issues. The American social media company, which is paying $5.7 billion for a minority stake in […]
View: Only time will tell if Jio-Facebook deal is beneficial for India
By Nehaa Chaudhari & Arpit Gupta, Ikigai Law With its Rs 43,574 crore investment, Facebook is now Reliance Jio’s largest minority shareholder. This was accompanied by a pact between WhatsApp and Reliance Retail to boost the latter’s JioMart platform. In July 2019, Facebook invested in Meesho, an Indian social commerce company that connects buyers and […]
Expedia to boost liquidity with $3.2 billion capital raise, names new CEO
Expedia Group said on Thursday it was raising $3.2 billion in fresh capital to boost its liquidity, in an effort to ride out a coronavirus-driven collapse in travel demand. The company also named Vice Chairman Peter Kern as its chief executive officer and said it would abandon its dividend, implement furloughs and reduce work-week programs […]
Amazon woos offline stores after Facebook-Jio deal
A day after the mega announcement of Facebook investing $5.7 billion in Reliance Jio Platforms, which would involved the two companies coming together to enable commerce through neighbourhood stores, Amazon India made another push to integrate with local retailers to propel its offline strategy. Amazon said on Thursday said it was growing its ‘Local Shops […]
ETtech Top 5: Startups to cut more jobs, Facebook dials Jio & more
Hello everyone, It’s appraisal time. And all the hard work you’ve put in over last year may still not get you the rewards you were expecting. But don’t take it too hard, especially when companies all over the country are handing out pink slips. Illustration: Rahul Awasthi More layoffs in store Technology startups are likely […]
For SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, coronavirus turns vision to illusion
SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son’s dream of a global tech empire is unravelling, with the coronavirus crisis compounding losses at his $100 billion Vision Fund and distress at his big bets portending more pain. More than half of the fund’s capital is in startups that are suffering from the virus impact or exhibiting stress pre-dating […]
Covid-19 impact: Jeff Bezos takes back the wheel at Amazon
By Karen WeiseAt the end of February, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, and his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, were in France discussing climate change with President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace and celebrating atop the Eiffel Tower with designer Diane von Furstenberg. Days later, paparazzi spotted the couple grabbing dinner at Carbone in New York. […]
Eros bets on Hollywood, China and digital content with STX Entertainment merger
Indian motion picture production company Eros International is pivoting from films toward a digital content and distribution business in the US and China as part of its post-Covid strategy. “Since the last three years, we were working towards reducing our reliance on the theatrical revenues,” said Kishore Lulla, chairman of NYSE and BSE-listed Eros International. […]
The inside story of Facebook-Jio’s $5.7 billion deal
“Could I catch up on some sleep just for a few hours?” was the first message Anshuman Thakur typed out to a senior colleague around noon Tuesday, right after finishing a call with Ajit Mohan, Facebook‘s India boss. Thakur, a former telecoms rainmaker at NM Rothschild and Morgan Stanley, and now head of strategy and […]