Facebook co-founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday renewed his defense of the social network’s business, arguing that targeting ads based on interests was different from selling people’s data. “If we’re committed to serving everyone, then we need a service that is affordable to everyone,” Zuckerberg said in an opinion piece published in the Wall […]
Archives for 2019
Google’s bid to battle Amazon suffers blow as Walmart withdraws
By Matthew Boyle and Mark Bergen Walmart has quietly withdrawn from one of Google’s marquee efforts to challenge Amazon in e-commerce. Walmart removed its products from Google’s Shopping Actions service, the internet giant said on Thursday. The retailer also recently dropped out of Google Express, a related delivery service. In March, Google unveiled Shopping Actions, […]
Microsoft Office is now available on Apple’s Mac App Store
Apple has announced that Microsoft Office 365 is now available on Mac App Store where Apple users can directly download the flagship apps such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The debut of the Microsoft Office in Apple Store came a little bit later than what Apple first announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference last year, […]
Microsoft ‘waiting to find out’ why Bing went offline in China
A smartphone with the Microsoft Bing logo is displayed against the backdrop of a Chinese flag in this picture illustration taken January 24, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Microsoft is still trying to figure out why its Bing search engine temporarily went offline in China, the company’s president said following speculation that it could have been blocked […]
Raymond taps B2B e-commerce to link retailers and dealers
Picture credits: ThinkStock Raymond, India’s largest textile & global conglomerate, will foray into B2B e-commerce to connect retailers and dealers in the clothing and textile space. According to sources in textile and apparel circles, Raymond had already enrolled 2,500 retailers across India and has been running pilot tests for more than four months, including in […]
Deadline for new FDI policy in e-commerce may be deferred
The government is considering extending the deadline of February 1 by when recently announced changes in the foreign direct investment policy for e-commerce are to take effect, said people with knowledge of the matter. “The government is considering giving an extension, but no final decision has been taken,” said a senior official. Amazon and Walmart-owned […]
Paytm has no plans to leave Mall business: Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has denied that the company is planning to exit the online marketplace business but said its newly-launched online wholesale business is expected to generate about 15% of the Paytm Mall’s business in the coming years. Three people close to the Noida-based mobile payments and e-commerce firm, however, said Paytm is […]
E-comm sellers have little to cheer in lacklustre Republic Day sales
In what was the first big sale event of 2019, online merchants on Flipkart and Amazon registered a tepid response, blaming weak consumer sentiment and lack of awareness created by the two firms. The sales which kicked off on January 20, did little to move the sales needle for online vendors despite them running promotions. […]
Why peer-to-peer lending is struggling to take off in India
It was just before he demitted office in 2016 that the then Reserve Bank of India governor, Raghuram Rajan, the darling of the digital financial services sector, released a consultation paper on peer-to-peer lending. P2P lending enables individuals to borrow and lend money through online platforms that match lenders with borrowers, and was expected to […]
How Kalyan Krishnamurthy is reordering the Flipkart-Myntra top brass
Flipkart has come a long way since group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy began his second innings at the homegrown e-commerce company in 2016 — arguably one of its most troubled phases with Amazon snapping at its heels. A canny operator, Krishnamurthy swooped down and tightened the ship. One of the key areas he addressed then was […]