Oracle has held preliminary talks with TikTok‘s Chinese owner, ByteDance, and was seriously considering buying the app’s operations in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Monday, citing people briefed about the matter. Reuters reported earlier this month that Twitter had approached ByteDance to express interest in acquiring […]
Flipkart in talks for e-pharmacy biz
After Amazon India, Walmart-owned Flipkart is looking to enter the e-pharmacy space as demand for online medicine delivery remains strong, two people aware of the matter said. Flipkart is building its own team internally for the e-pharmacy business. But it has also held early stage partnership talks with PharmEasy even as the Mumbai-based e-pharmacy firm […]
Hate speech row: Congress wants Facebook to take action against its India executives
The Congress on Monday demanded that Facebook take action against its Indian executives, following a media report that claimed the social media company had not applied its hate speech rules to certain people and groups linked to the ruling BJP. The CPM supported Congress’ call for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe, with party general […]
ETtech Top 5: Short-video apps land new funds, Reliance eyes ecommerce buys & more
Homegrown short-videos apps are attracting investors as they look to gain users on the back of TikTok’s ban in India. Meanwhile, Reliance is eyeing a slew of acquisitions as it looks to expand the scope of its ecommerce offerings. Short-video funding Homegrown short-video apps Trell and Mitron have raised funding as the sector witnessed unprecedented […]
Medical stores industry body calls Amazon’s entry to e-pharmacy "illegal"
Amazon India launched its pharmacy business in Bengaluru last week and is conducting pilots in other cities. Medical stores industry entity All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), which represents 8.5 lakh chemist and drug retailers in the country, has written to e-commerce giant Amazon, the Prime Minister’s office and Ministry of Health & […]
The most annoying job in the investment biz
Just got finished reading this story at the Wall Street Journal and I still don’t understand it. So, there’s a guy named Ben Meng who was in charge of the investments for Calpers, which is California’s gigantic public employees’ pension fund. And he also happened to own between $10,000 and $100,000 worth of Blackstone shares, […]
Google goes public with rebuke on Australia antitrust law
Internet giant Google on Monday criticised proposed Australian antitrust laws, saying its free search service would be “at risk” and users’ personal data could be shared if it is made to pay news organisations for their content. The Alphabet-owned company said the proposed laws would also help big media companies artificially inflate their search rankings, […]
Amazon, Flipkart expect big jump in festive sales; ask sellers to place large orders with brands
Illustration: Rahul Awasthi India’s two biggest ecommerce marketplaces, Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart, expect this year’s festival-season business in smartphones, television sets, refrigerators, washing machines and apparel to nearly double for some categories and increase at least 40% in others, top industry executives told ET. The platforms have accordingly asked sellers to place large orders with […]
Google in talks with ShareChat as latter scouts for $150-200 million
Google is in talks with ShareChat for investing in the Bengaluru-based social media firm, two people familiar with the matter told ET. ShareChat is looking to raise $150-200 million and is holding discussions with investors and technology companies, as it prepares to battle it out with over a dozen rivals to fill the gap left […]
Slugfest erupts over bias charges against Facebook
A political slugfest broke out between the Congress and the BJP over allegations that social media giant Facebook had shown favouritism to the latter by not acting on hate speech posts by BJP leaders. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed on Sunday that Facebook and WhatsApp are controlled by the BJP and RSS in India while […]