Indonesia’s digital transformation journey is gearing up to witness a new chapter as Trescon prepares to host the 22nd edition of the World Cloud Show in Jakarta. The much-awaited event on November 7, 2023, at the renowned Ritz-Carlton Jakarta Mega Kuningan, will host top tech titans, decision-makers, and innovators to discuss the latest trends and innovations that are bolstering Indonesia’s innovation ecosystem.
23 October 2023, Jakarta: Indonesia, one of the rising economies in the Asia-Pacific region, continues to attract global attention with its digital transformation journey. In recent years, the country has witnessed seismic growth with the seamless integration of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain-based solutions, cloud computing, cybersecurity solutions, and more.
The 22nd edition of the World Cloud Show, organized by Trescon, is a one-of-a-kind platform that will showcase some of the transformative solutions and innovations that are having a major effect in the regional business landscape. This thought-leadership-driven platform will serve as a key catalyst for innovators to network with leading titans and C-level decision-makers from the cloud computing domain.
As Indonesia is becoming the fastest-growing cloud market, the presence of international giants like Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, and Amazon Web Services further assists innovators and entrepreneurs extensively by understanding key trends and aiding them in their cloud migration journey. Cloud computing and data center solutions are set to play a central role in Indonesia’s digital transformation journey. According to a Mordor Intelligence report, Indonesia’s data center market was worth US$ 1.67 billion in 2022 and is projected to be worth US$ 3.43 billion by 2027 (growing at a CAGR of 13.15 percent from 2022 to 2027).
The events taking place in Indonesia further solidify its position as a global forum for global thought leaders, industry experts, cloud computing innovators, and experts to converge and explore new-gen solutions. Attendees will be able to gain valuable and actionable insights through engaging keynote presentations, enterprise use-case presentations, panel discussions, and interactive tech talks.
Notable speakers attending the event include:
Dr. Ilham Akbar Habibie, Chairman, National Information and Communication Technology Council
Dr. Rudy Salahuddin, Deputy Minister for Digital Economy, Manpower and SMEs, Coordinating Ministry For Economic Affairs Of The Republic Of Indonesia
Muhammad Arif, Chairman, Apjii (Asosiasi Penyelenggara Jasa Internet Indonesia) – Roy Nicholas Mandey, Chairman, Aprindo Indonesia
M. Zulkifli Salim, Deputy Director, Digitalization, Financial Centre & Banking Transformation, Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK)
Marsudi Wahyu Kisworo, Board of Governors, The National Agency for Research and Innovation, Republic of Indonesia
Wilbertus Darmadi, CIO, Toyota Astra Motor
Edwin Sugianto, COO & CMO, AXA Insurance Indonesia
James Elwes, Operations and IT Director (COO), HSBC Indonesia
Nicholas Tay, Chief Technology Officer, Sangfor Technologies
Andang Nugroho, President, ISC2 Jakarta Chapter
Erick Hadi, Founder at Nusantara Academy, Head of Talent Development and Industry Certification, IDPRO
, Cyber, Data Protection and Product Risk Assurance Group Head, PT Bank Nationalnobu Tbk (NobuBank)
Naveen Bharadwaj, CEO of Trescon, expressing his enthusiasm about the event said, “The convergence of the top tech veterans and cloud experts at the World Cloud Show creates a unique opportunity for Indonesia’s digital future. We are proud to create a blend of innovative, collaborative, and transformative platforms that empower the innovators of today to become the leaders of tomorrow.”
So save the date and join us as we script a new chapter in Indonesia’s digital transformation journey. To know more about the World Cloud Show
The 22nd edition of the World Cloud Show is supported by:
Gold Sponsor: Alibaba Cloud
Executive Roundtable Partner: Salesforce | Deloitte Digital
Trescon is a pioneering force in the global business events and services sector, driving the adoption of emerging technologies while promoting sustainability and inclusive leadership. With a deep understanding of the realities and requirements of the growth markets they operate in – they strive to deliver innovative and high-quality business platforms for their clients.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations.
We no longer have to wait for the newspapers to get the latest news, nor do we have to wait till we reach home and switch on the TV to know the breaking news. With mobile phones, fast and cheap internet services, and online news aggregators accessing news, the latest information and updates are now a breeze. However, getting local news updates every day in regional languages was still far from reality in India until 2010, when Dailyhunt was founded.
The Indian content and news aggregating app, founded in 2009, is a platform that delivers local news from all corners of the country to the Indian masses in their regional languages. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Dailyhunt aggregates and presents news and daily local language content in 14+ regional languages “that informs, enriches, and entertains” Indian audiences.
Initially started as Newshunt by Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekhar Sohoni in 2009, the Symbian-turned-Android application was acquired by Virendra Gupta in 2011. It was Viru who renamed the application to Dailyhunt, the name it is now known as, in 2015. Today Dailyhunt procures content from over 1000 publishers and is gaining much popularity due to its Indian regional language content
Dailyhunt turned into India’s first tech unicorn focused on local languages on December 21, 2020, after its parent organization, VerSe Innovation, received funding of over $100 million led by Google, Microsoft, and Falcon Edge’s Alpha Wave Incubation.
Find 650+ newspapers and channels in a single app in your own language – Dailyhunt
StartupTalky covers the success story of Dailyhunt in this post. Know all about Dailhunt, how the platform works, its business model, revenue model, funding, founder/owner, mergers and acquisitions, and more.
Dailyhunt – Industry | The Media and Entertainment Sector in India
According to the PwC report, India’s Media and Entertainment sector is fairly expected to touch $45.1 billion by 2021, expanding at a CAGR of over 10.5%. The report also states that the segment has undergone substantial progress since 2016, when its valuation stood at $27.3 billion.
Dailyhunt – About and How it Works
Dailyhunt is an Indian local news and content aggregator app that provides local language content in 14 Indian languages, which include major languages like Hindi, Kannada, and Marathi, to name a few, from over 3000+ content providers as of 2021.
It is one of the early entrants in the regional content space in the country. The interesting part is that the platform also offers short videos. This video content is sourced from organizations and stringers. Through its smart technology, the platform personalizes the content as per the users’ requirements.
From the nation’s biggest news source to hyperlocal correspondents, it curates news that you will surely love to watch. Almost 90% of the users use the platform in regional languages. It serves more than 350 million users a month, as per the reports for 2022. The unique proposition is that the users can browse the topics of their interest and also share news over different social media platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook, etc.
Dailyhunt Login
Dailyhunt login is not difficult. The login process for the Dailyhunt app is really easy because the local news aggregating platform appears as a website that is designed as a news portal for vernacular news. To login to the same, you simply need to go to www.direct.dailyhunt.in/log in, if you are using a browser or open the Dailyhunt app, create your username and password, and log in through the same credentials to enjoy your news updates right from the comfort of your home.
Dailyhunt – Founders and Team
Virendra Gupta is the founder and CEO of Dailyhunt; Umang Bedi is the co-founder; and Shailendra Sharma is the co-founder and SVP of Dailyhunt.
Virendra Gupta, Umang Bedi and Shailendra Sharma (L to R)
Virendra Gupta
Virendra Gupta has a B.E. degree in Electronics and Communication from Jodhpur’s MBM Engineering College, after which he completed a Master’s in Management from IIT Mumbai School of Management. Gupta started his career with OnMobile, where he was in marketing and alliances. After his brief stint with OnMobile, Virendra moved on to work with other companies, including Bharti Cellular and Trilogy, where he served in various key leadership positions. Virendra Gupta eventually founded Verse, a value-added service company, in 2007, which led him to acquire Newshunt (now Dailyhunt) in 2011, thereby becoming the founder and CEO of both companies.
Umang Bedi
Now known as the co-founder of Dailyhunt, Umang Bedi was a Pune University student from whom he completed a B.E. in electronics. He then pursued a general management program at Harvard Business School. Starting his career as the Managing Director of Intuit Inc., Umang has served as the Managing Director of a couple of other notable companies too, which include Adobe and Facebook, before being appointed as the President of Dailyhunt in 2018. Bedi was elevated to the designation of co-founder in 2020. Umang is also the Statutory Board Member of Goals 101.
Shailendra Sharma
Shailendra Sharma is the SVP of Engineering at Dailyhunt. Starting as a software trainee at Tata Research and Development Center, Sharma went on to work with Persistent Systems and Trilogy before co-founding DailyHunt with the other co-founders. Sharma is also regarded as the founder of 360fy Technologies. Shailendra Sharma is also a Pune University alumnus, from which he completed an MCA in Computer Science.
Virendra Gupta had initially started the Daily Hunt. Later, he roped in Umang Bedi and Shailendra Sharma to make the platform available to a larger audience.
Dailyhunt has an employee strength of between 501 and 1,000 employees.
Dailyhunt – Startup Story | How was Dailyhunt Started?
Dailyhunt, earlier known as Newshunt, was initially started by two ex-Nokia employees, Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekhar Sohoni. It was created as a Symbian app in 2009. However, later in 2011, Newshunt was acquired by Virendra Gupta, who was then the founder of VerSe Innovation. He had started his venture, Versé Innovation Pvt Ltd., as a value-added service (VAS) company that provides SMS alerts on jobs, matrimony, property, news, and education to subscribers from around the country. In 2015, he renamed NewsHunt aailyHunt.
Dailyhunt – Name and Logo
The name Dailyhunt was chosen because the app allows users to get daily news when searching determinedly.
Dailyhunt Logo
Dailyhunt – Business Model and Revenue Model
Being a news aggregating app is common, but Dailyhunt, most importantly, is a vernacular news aggregating app. There is a difference. In contrast to the other traditional news platforms, which target the top 10–15% of internet users, Dailyhunt targets the remaining percentage of the audience with its local language contents.
Dailyhunt is free for users who want to read the news and other relevant content from the app. It generates revenue from:
Impressions-Based (News): tie-ups with large news media and publishing houses wherein Dailyhunt shares the advertising revenue on the news screens with these players.
Transactions-Based (Books, Magazines, and Singles): tie-ups with book and magazine publishers, wherein the platform acts as a distributor for these books, collects the revenue from the users, and shares it with the publishers, who in turn may share it with the authors.
In-App Advertisements: Dailyhunt also earns from the advertisements of the companies and startups that feature on the app.
Dailyhunt – Funding and Investors
Dailyhunt has witnessed more than $430 million in funding over 14+ funding rounds from a range of investors, including Qatar Investment, Falcon Edge, Google, Microsoft, ByteDance, Goldman Sachs, and others.
Dailyhunt and JJosh’s parent, Verse Innovation, raised a relatively large funding round on April 6, 2022, which infused $805 million into the company, led by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), where CPP alone put $425 million worth of funds. As of the reports for 2022, the Daily Hunt parent is valued at around $5 billion.
Date
Stage
Amount
Lead Investors
February 2021
Series H
$100 million
Qatar Investment Authority and others
December 2020
Series H
$100 million
Google, Microsoft and Falcon Edge’s Alpha Wave Incubation
Bytedance has reportedly exited Dailyhunt parent VerSe Innovation’s cap table at a discount of 56% as of June 4, 2022. The exit of the Chinese investor was confirmed earlier in June 2022 by VerSe. With the exit of the Tiktok owner, Bytedance, VerSe Innovation has now proclaimed that they are one of the few unicorn companies in India with 0% Chinese holding.
Bytedance has reportedly sold its stake in VerSe with the help of a secondary deal to existing investors, including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).
Dailyhunt – Growth
In July 2018, Dailyhunt added over 12 million net new monthly active users, and in August, it beat the previous month’s performance with the addition of 15 million new monthly active users. Total monthly users on all platforms (Dailyhunt and OneIndia) put together, when reported in September 2018, were 138 million+, of which Dailyhunt accounted for 100 million+. Moreover, the time spent per daily active user is over 27 minutes per person per day, as reported at the end of 2018.
Dailyhunt has grown to serve over 350 million users every month, and its short video platform, Josh, claims to grow its monthly active users (MAUs) to 139 million and its daily active users (DAUs) to 68 million as of January 20, 2022. The Verse Innovation news aggregating platform Dailyhunt has turned out to be one of the leading news-providing platforms and has grown 8X bigger than its nearest rival, InShorts.
Why are losses piling up?
Dailyhunt attained unicorn status after the Google-led fundraising round in December 2020, and the Indian content and news aggregator platform is aiming to scale new horizons with the Chinese apps not yet to be unbanned anytime soon.
The Indian content and news aggregator platform has reportedly increased its operating revenue in FY20, where its total collections amounted to Rs 310 crore, which improved by 95% from Rs 159.1 crore in FY19. However, the company has simultaneously witnessed a surge in its total expenditure, which included:
Advertisement and promotional expenditure: This rose by 74% from Rs 214.6 crore in FY19 to Rs 373 crore in FY20.
Commissions to selling agents: The company distributed commissions amounting to Rs 8.4 crore to their selling agents.
Expenditure on employee benefits: This witnessed a rise of 36%, from Rs 114 crore in FY19 to Rs 155.2 crore in FY20.
Training and recruiting expenses: additional amount of Rs 3 crore
Miscellaneous expenses: This surged 54.4%, from Rs 81.6 crore in FY20 to Rs 126 crore in FY21.
Legal and professional costs: Dailyhunt has to bear Rs 16.7 crore in the name of legal and other professional costs.
Going by the income-expenses of the company, Dailyhunt had to spend Rs 2.7 to earn a single rupee, which is a slight improvement from Rs 3 spent to gain Re 1, which the company exhibited at the end of the past financial year. The main reason for the losses that Dailyhunt is picking up is the rising costs of the company, which need to be curbed in the future. These expenses would continue to grow even in FY21 and FY22 due to Josh, the short-form video app launched by Dailyhunt, according to the experts. The reasons for the upcoming expenditures are mainly associated with the promotion and seamless integration of Josh, which is facing huge market competition from ShareChat’s Moj, InMobi-owned Glance’s Roposo, and MX’s Takatak.
Financials
The parent business of Dailyhunt and Josh, VerSe Innovation, made a significant financial achievement in the fiscal year 2022-2023 (FY 2022-2023). From Rs. 1,151 crore in FY22, its total income increased by 57% year over year to reach Rs. 1,809 crore in FY23. With an additional Rs 352 crore coming from non-operating operations, the company’s operating revenue increased by 51% to Rs 1,457 crore, showing another notable increase for the industry.
Expenses Breakdown
Dailyhunt total expenses rise from Rs 3,714 crore in FY22 to Rs 3,716 crore in FY23.
Below is the expense breakdown:
Expenses breakdown
FY22
FY23
Cost of service
Rs 1,411.32 crore
Rs 1672.20 crore
Business promotion
Rs 1262.76 crore
Rs 1,003.32 crore
Employee benefits
Rs 742.8 crore
Rs 817.52 crore
Others
Rs 297.1 crore
Rs 223 crore
EBITDA
According to the company, Dailyhunt recorded more than Rs 1,200 crore in revenue and had an EBITDA margin of 10% at the end of FY23.
Dailyhunt – Products and Services
Newzly
A news-in-brief app for Android users called Newzly was introduced by Dailyhunt in January 2018. With material available in nine languages (English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, and Gujarati), the app’s initial release gives a summary of hot news stories across a variety of genres, including regional, international, entertainment, business, sports, and technology.
Josh
Dailyhunt has launched the short video app Josh in 2020. Josh is Dailyhunt’s homage to Bharat, praising its artistic beauty and diversity, according to Dailyhunt, which said it had gained amazing traction during the beta period.
Publicvibe
With the release of Publicvibe, a new app from Dailyhunt that solely offers hyperlocal video updates on crime, politics, social concerns, and local events, video has been elevated to a new level.
Dailyhunt – Partnership
Some of the prominent partnerships of Dailyhunt are:
Twitter
Twitter collaborated with Dailyhunt to bring Moments to the Indian vernacular news and content aggregating app, as per the reports on February 8, 2021. Dailyhunt currently has a dedicated section called “Twitter Moments,” where users can find curated tweets containing news and other events.
Mzzalo
In December 2020, Dailyhunt announced its partnership with Mzaalo. This will allow Dailyhunt users to get access to Mzaalo’s content and also earn a reward point. These points can later be redeemed to purchase products or services from brands in the Mzaalo app.
Mathrubhumi
Dailyhunt partnered with Mathrubhumi in January 2023. According to Dailyhunt, its users will now be able to read a wide range of content on the platform, including investigative stories, informational stories, entertainment news, and political stories. The partnership will also help Mathrubhumi by allowing it to showcase its content to a sizable portion of Dailyhunt’s readers while also providing its devoted readership with digital support.
Research and Ranking
The Daily Hunt and Research & Ranking have joined forces in January 2023. By raising awareness of wealth development and financial planning, the cooperation, according to the corporation, wants to expand its reach throughout India.
Hindu Group
The Hindu Group, India’s most reputable media organization, and Dailyhunt have partnered on February 16, 2023, to offer users even easier access to a wealth of in-depth information.
Dailyhunt – Investment
Dailyhunt has invested in one company to date:
Company Name
Date
Amount
Funding Round
OneIndia
July 18, 2016
–
Jul 18, 2016
Dailyhunt – Mergers & Acquisitions
Dailyhunt’s parent organization, VerSe Innovation,acquired India-based Vebbler, a community-focused application for sharing photos and videos, on March 10, 2021.
In June 2019, the startup acquired hyperlocal video content and news content application LocalPlay, which will help the site stream video content in smaller towns. This deal will also enable local businessmen to advertise on the platform to target consumers in their area.
In July 2015, Dailyhunt acquired Buyt.In, a search engine that enables its users to discover, compare, and purchase products from a range of e-commerce portals.
The most prominent acquisitions of Dailyhunt are listed as:
Acquiree Name
Acquired Date
Price
Vebbler
March 10, 2021
–
Cognirel
Feb 23, 2021
–
LocalPlay
June 20, 2019
–
Buyt.in
July 15, 2015
–
Dailyhunt – Competitors
Though Dailyhunt was one of the early entrants in the market, today it faces strong competition in the market. There are a lot of applications with different USPs running for the first position in the market. Inshortsdirectly competes with Dailyhunt in the news aggregation space, along with the other applications of:
Newsstand
Business Insider
FirstPost
NDTV
Dainik Bhaskar
On the other hand, in the short video application of Dailyhunt, Josh competes with:
Moj by ShareChat
MX TakaTak
YouTube Shorts
Dailyhunt – Future Plans
Dailyhunt has spoken of its plans to reach 600 of the 725 districts in India from its presence in 400 districts, as per various reports in 2019.
“For the next 10 years, we are going to be all about Bharat or India that does not speak English to take to consumption in a big way with smartphones”, says Virendra Gupta, founder and CEO of Dailyhunt.
With the market becoming more favorable to IT companies in recent years, Dailyhunt is preparing an initial public offering (IPO) over the next two to three years, according to a news report from 2022, a top executive revealed in an interview. The announcement of Dailyhunt’s IPO comes at a time when many internet startups are considering the public markets as a means of funding and providing investors with exits.
FAQs
What is the Daily Hunt?
Dailyhunt is an Indian news and content aggregator app, which can also be termed a local news app that provides local language content in 14+ Indian languages from over 3000+ content providers.
Dailyhunt is from which country?
Dailyhunt originated in India. It previously had the Chinese Investor, ByteDance, in its cap table, who exited the company as of June 4, 2022.
Who is the DailyHunt app owner?
Dailyhunt’s parent company is VerSe Innovation, which is owned by Virendra Gupta. He is the founder and CEO of DailyHunt.
Are NewsHunt and DailyHunt the same?
The Dailyhunt company, as it stands now, was originally rebranded as Newshunt. So, essentially, NewsHunt and DailyHunt are the same platforms.
What languages does Dailyhunt support?
Dailyhunt has content in 14+ Indian languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, English, Gujarati, Punjabi, Oriya, Bengali, Urdu, Nepali, and Bhojpuri.
What is the Daily Hunt valuation?
Dailyhunt is a unicorn and boasts a valuation of $5 million as of 2022.
In the era of Western Fashion, Forever 21 is no stranger! The very prominent apparel brand was founded by Do Won Chang and his wife, Jin Sook Chang. Forever 21 is an American-based brand, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States.
In the beginning, the brand was called Fashion 21, which was later grown into a huge clothing line of shops under the brand names Love 21, Heritage, XXI Forever, and Forever 21. The American fashion brand was founded in 1984, and ever since its establishment, the company has seen immense success. In fact, today, Forever 21 owns over 550 stores across the globe.
Forever 21 was established to offer a broad range of women’s clothing, but now, the brand has widened its categories and included various sections like Men, girls, kids, lifestyle accessories, and others.
A huge fraction of the apparel manufactured by Forever 21 is from China and then exported to other countries like the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and the United States. The company functions with annual revenue of $4 billion. In this article, we will discuss the marketing strategies of Forever 21. Let’s get started!
Forever 21 has been around for a long time now, it offers a wide range of clothing in all categories for men, women, and kids. The brand has a very strong position in the global market with a diverse range of product portfolios.
From kids to adults, you can find clothing for all ages. Its main target for clothing products is adults, kids, and toddlers. Forever 21 provides jeans, tops, jumpers, lingerie, and many other clothing products.
Besides its clothing section, Forever 21 also provides accessories sections, including belts, ties, hats, gloves, sunglasses, and many more. Moreover, its jewelry section includes products like watches, body jewelry, pins, brooches, and others.
Apart from this, Forever 21 also offers footwear products like loafers, wedges, sandals, boots, and heels. Forever 21 keeps its product range distinct and with great customer engagement.
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Forever 21 puts its major focus on attracting women of all ages. Its products are specially designed in such a way that they satisfy the fashion sense and style of women, from teenagers to adults.
Forever 21 is ranked at 121st position in the list of top 1000 Internet retailers in 2023 (according to Digital Commerce 360), This is a significant drop from its previous rank of 2nd in 2019. Around 45% of the brand’s entire online customers are millennial women.
With these high-rated customers, Forever 21 makes a fancy annual revenue of around $4 billion, which certainly is a huge figure. And that’s why it mainly focuses on females from all categories. Although the brand does offer men’s collections, its major market revenue source is women.
Rise and Fall of Forever 21
Pricing Strategy of Forever 21
Forever 21 is widely famous for its strategic pricing techniques. The brand offers great pricing deals according to the demands of the fashion product. Forever 21 is receiving great responses from the customers as well. Brand’s valuation in the global market is increasing by great percentages. The brand is one of the top fancied brands with its incredible marketing policies and strategic planning.
Forever 21 is able to keep its prices low by controlling its costs. The company has a vertically integrated business model, which means that it controls all aspects of the production process, from design to manufacturing to retail. This allows Forever 21 to eliminate middlemen and reduce costs. Forever 21 often offers bundle pricing on its products. This means that customers can buy two or more products for a discounted price. This strategy helps the company to increase sales and reduce inventory levels.
Forever 21 began its journey from Los Angeles, California, and today, the brand has spread across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and America. The brand owns over 550 retail stores in 27 countries.
In fact, Forever 21 has reached countries like India, Australia, Costa Rica, Japan, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Forever 21 functions with very strategic distribution and marketing planning.
With such an immense network, the brand is looking forward to establishing its outlets in Malaysia, Greece, Israel, and Russia.
Forever 21 retail stores are well-designed and large, suiting its fashion styling. The brand has a huge networking channel for distributing its products and services across the globe. Its distribution network includes Suppliers, Vendors, and franchise owners.
Promotion and Advertising Strategy of Forever 21
Forever 21 carries a very strong social media presence in order to promote its services and products. It works on improving customer service and relations with all prospects.
Forever 21 promotion strategies are entirely based on increasing the brand’s reach and capitalizing on its market share. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest have worked promptly towards enhancing brand awareness among the global audience.
They also believe that marketing their children’s products vigorously is important. Bright colors and lively displays are used throughout Forever 21 stores to make them enjoyable and enticing to children. Kids are often exposed to the kids’ section of each store as soon as they enter because it is typically found at the front of the store.
Forever 21 functions very strategically when it comes to advertising and promotions of the brand. Forever 21 popularity can be easily estimated from the number of followers the brand has on its official website. Its prominent advertising and promotions are done through social media channels.
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The marketing strategies of Forever 21 are pretty straightforward and reliable. The brand offers custom, fast-paced, and low-priced clothes to gather its audience and build strong customer support.
Although the brand still requires a few improvements and alterations to the quality of its products, the quality isn’t resisting. Forever 21 offers a huge range of fashion clothes and accessories to its customers with great offers and discounts. And that’s what attracts more customers to the brand.
Forever 21 always keeps up with the trends and prefers experiments on its products. Forever 21 is set for more uprise success flow in the upcoming year.
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The festive season is indeed colorful, but it can get noisy at times! This holds true for the digital e-commerce and retail segments as well. Retail giants and online marketplaces go all out to grab eyeballs and purse strings during the festival season, while the smaller companies and startups are left struggling to remain visible. StartupTalky spoke to a few digital marketers and small and medium companies to try and find out some simple ways small businesses can make the most even amid a deluge of festive offers.
Be it the Great Indian Shopping Festival by Amazon India or the Big Billion Days by Flipkart, you cannot ignore the demand that these giants churn out single-handedly.
On Sunday Flipkart’s Chief Executive Officer, Kalyan Krishnamurthy said in a statement that the Big Billion Days sale got 1.4 billion visits during its festive offering between Oct 7-Oct 15, two times “crorepati seller growth” over the previous year. Meanwhile, Amazon’s Great Indian Shopping Festival is expected to clock blistering sales.
A survey conducted of 1,000 mobile users by imobi and Glance showed that 84% of Indian consumers reported an increase in their online shopping budgets from a year ago during the current festive season. Around 66% of the surveyors intend to shop for items over ₹25,000.
“What happens during the festive season is that big brands have bigger budgets and larger-than-life campaigns that they allocate, and smaller companies get lost in that chatter,” said Vivek Kumar Anand, Chief Business Officer at DVIO Digital, which handles marketing for aggregators like Flipkart and Meesho. In 2022, the advertising sales of e-commerce giants were tipped at a mind-boggling $1 billion, according to Sankalp Mehrotra, VP of Monetisation at FlipkartPitch during an event in February this year.
The best way to deal with the sale season is to just accept their might and pick niche products to market, digital marketers said.
“We try to avoid competition. For example, if someone is selling a product on Amazon, we try to avoid those sales and focus on some other products, through which we can avoid the competition because we understand that there are budget constraints and we cannot be with these giants,” said Abhyudaya Tripathi, vice president, business operations at digital marketing firm Tangence. Spending on advertising during the festive season is also of little use, as returns may not be equivalent, Tripathi added.
Babycare retailer Citta’s Co-Founder and CEO, Akansha Sharma, expresses the anguish of putting up search engine marketing ads during the festive season. “You definitely have to increase (the budget on ads) during the festive season because everyone is doing that. So, you know, bidding is very competitive for ads. So if the other person is going to bid more, your bid automatically has to increase. It increases easily by 15-20%.”
Therefore, several smaller companies are left with no choice but to sell on aggregator sites, even though it may eat into their margins.
Many smaller companies struggle for visibility despite increased marketing budgets and high demand.
“There are a lot of Indian and international brands with deeper pockets and a much larger infrastructure base that come up with offers, discounts, and product ranges which are almost impossible and unviable for the smaller players from the MSME sector to compete with. Thus, we see an overall increase in sales from a market perspective, but MSMEs end up taking a hit,” said Navin Rao, co-founder of The Kaftan Company.
Maintain Exclusivity
The huge discounts offered on e-commerce sites tend to divert even loyal customers away from a company’s home website. One way to stay relevant during the festival season is to have exclusive products on your company website.
“There is the entire collection on Myntra and Amazon (by our company), but there might be a small capsule of, say, footwear, which is available only on our website, that would just create a differentiated element for the customer to come to our website and shop from this website,” said Shalvi Govil, Head of Digital Business at clothes retailer–The Indian Garage Co.
Companies can also get creative and offer services that are available only on their website. Clothes retailer TryndBuy has a virtual try-on room where a customer can try on clothes virtually. The company has granted 30 patents internationally for this feature and has already won several awards for it.
Citta tries to invest in fostering client relationships during the holiday season rather than getting down to intensive marketing. “We’re planning to have a few more festive-oriented talks on Instagram, like storytelling for kids or something that will get them that is centered around the festivals. It’s still a more genuine way to connect with people than just marketing,” Sharma from Citta said.
A recent survey by consumer data intelligence company Axis My India, 33% of the 5,452 people surveyed are more likely to interact with brands on social media when presented with compelling offers. While 39% of respondents cherish the classic touch, choosing not to interact with brands on social media for festive deals.
Sometimes small tweaks on the digital interface can cascade into bigger returns, even amidst the frenetic buying spree.
“Even if you change the meta tag and the meta description of the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) words, then you will be up in the game in terms of higher CTR (click-through ratio) for the festive season. Let’s say instead of having a plain vanilla kind of description for your SEO ranking, you are having 70% off during the festive season for the selected product; automatically, you will have a higher CTR,” said Anand.
Anand also suggested handing out coupons and discounts well ahead of time and keeping note of the buying behavior of customers. For example, luring buyers during the Shrad period is typically considered a lull period for purchases. Some entrepreneurs try to look at the positives and focus on networking and building ties.
“These few months are a great time to get to know all the people involved, like a retailer or any other business partners. It’s a very good time to start building relations with people involved, such as retailers or other business partners. We ensure that we’re gifting something to our business partners and maybe meeting them,” Sharma from Citta said.
Direct-to-consumer skincare retailer Foxtale says it empowers customers through transparency.
“Whether it is through our ingredient list or our lab trials where the customer is privy to reviews of our products before they can make an informed decision, we try and empower our customers to make the right choice for themselves when picking out a product,” said Aditi Sahu, VP Product, and Development at Foxtale.
Conclusion
The big retailers and giants may take the thunder away as far as festive discounts are concerned, but smaller companies can also make hay while the festive sun shines. Brainstorming with creative strategies and looking at consolidating your existing clientele can go a long way in maintaining brand loyalty, irrespective of the festive boom.
Condensing news articles into sixty-worded shorts of crisp information, Inshorts has become popular among people in the digital world in a very short span of time. This company was founded in 2013 by Azhar Iqubal, Deepit Purkayastha, and Anunay Arunav.
Inshorts summarise news and blogs that can be swiped up one after the other, like stories. This article will discuss the marketing strategy that made Inshorts shoot up in popularity.
Their strategies become all the more noteworthy because of their success despite the evident oversupply of news channels and blogs in the digital era. It takes careful planning and execution to stand out in such a hyper-competitive market world.
The founders of Inshorts did thorough research on the contemporary market condition before they organized the ways in which their app should function. During that time, people were heavily dependent on blogs and Facebook posts to keep themselves updated with news in the fast-paced world where they could not follow TV channels. However, these sources bombarded them with many links, images, information, and unnecessary notifications.
The need for a crisp news provider that gives the right information in a short span of time was very important. The master brains behind Inshorts were able to identify this gap and came up with the idea of 60-word stories that users can easily read based on their preferences.
Annual Revenue of Inshorts
The company was able to raise revenue from $13 million in 2021 to $18.9 million in 2022. The revenue growth rate of 44.9% demonstrates how successfully the app effectively serves its target users.
What determines the success and loss of any venture, for that matter, are the criteria that we look at. As far as Inshorts is concerned, they were not bothered about their content going viral or the amount of time spent on it. They focused on the number of screens that each user goes through. As of now, an average user will go through over 80 screens every day and spend 6 hours and 58 minutes per day on screens connected to the internet. Engaging the user became the priority over making the content viral.
Being User Friendly
User Experience of Inshorts
Inshorts made sure that their user experience was extremely comfortable within their app. Each story is short and without any additional links. There are no prompts to go further into the story or to the next story. It is completely up to the user.
They have also not focused much on the sharing aspect of it, which has helped the user immerse into their own little world while going through this news. Their primary intention was to get more people to come back to the app rather than getting the news shared.
Allowing Customisation
In this small world, everything is news. In that context, it is important to give the user exactly what they want. Most of the users come to Inshorts to not be bombarded with unnecessary news and information like other similar apps and websites. To not give a similar experience, they have developed filters to ensure the kind of news or blogs that they would like to see on their feeds. In this way, the user does not feel overwhelmed with the flooding of information.
How to Use the app Inshorts
Analyzing the Data Right
Today, accessing information is no longer a difficult task. What makes all the difference is the way in which the available data is used for the company’s development. Inshorts is a company that gives a lot of importance to such inferred data. They decide on their strength and weaknesses based on their inferences. For example, being a news discovery app, they had to choose whether to prioritize their editorial team or should they focus on the products they launched. They were successfully able to narrow down their primary focus to strengthening their editorial team based on the data that they received from the time that each user spends on a screen.
Valuation of Inshorts
Consumer Based Service
Information is consumed by all people irrespective of where they come from and what their qualifications are. However, how they consume this information will vary. The same product that is used in tier 1 cities cannot be pushed into tier 2 and tier 3 cities. The way they engage with the internet, the kind of news they like, and how they use the app will all differ. Inshorts earns revenue primarily through advertising on its mobile app.
Inshorts has ensured that they deliver differently in different areas, respecting their consumer’s requirements. They have recently launched a different app that focuses on video content more than written ones. Through a separate app, people can watch more videos, while those who prefer the regular summaries are not disturbed.
Depending on what your USP is, it is of prime importance to use the right tools to enhance better engagement with the content. Inshorts did not go wrong there as well. They, after various tests and surveys, realized the importance of the right image in every news.
The content, being only 60 words, demands so much from the accompanying picture. The founders of Inshorts have confirmed the difference that a good picture will make in the way in which each user engages with the stories.
Knowing When to Stop
It is only a thin line between when information can be informed and menace. One of the biggest problems that people using mobile phones face is the deluge of notifications. It can be very distracting. However, Inshorts has saved itself from this bad reputation by ensuring that the users will only get a fixed number of notifications every day.
By using the data of engagement and their preferences, they choose which possible stories are most relevant to the user and will only notify the details of those stories. In that way, the app maintains a safe distance and also stays connected with the user at the same time.
It takes constant planning and persistence to be a successful app in such a competitive market. They have proved that you don’t have to do different things to be successful, but what matters is doing things differently.
Today, Inshorts has become a name in itself for short news rather than being known as an app. They have identified the gaps and bridged them like no other. Their success lies in focusing on and optimizing the right variables instead of going on the regular ideas of popularity and virulence. The company’s marketing strategy has been extremely effective. The app has developed dramatically in recent years, and it is currently one of India’s most popular news apps. Inshorts’ emphasis on information, customization, accessibility, and affordability has made it a vital resource for people searching for a convenient method to remain up to date on the latest news.
FAQs
What are the marketing strategies employed by Inshorts?
Inshorts ensures it doesn’t deliver the same information that it delivers to tier 1 cities to tier 2 and tier 3 cities. The founders of the app focused on keeping the users informed and engaged rather than delivering viral content.
What is the current revenue and valuation of Inshorts?
The revenue of Inshorts stands at $18.9 Million, and its valuation is $550 Million (as of July 2021).
Why is Inshorts successful?
Inshorts provides news in less than 60 seconds without bombarding users with unnecessary news and viral content, which is why its users prefer coming back to the app.
Imagine a time when the internet was like a wild jungle, with information scattered everywhere. People struggled to find their way through this online wilderness.
This ocean of information required organizing and arranging. This requirement gave a spark in the mind of Jerry Yang who along with his friend decided to create something amazing to make sense of the chaos.
They built Yahoo, a magical place on the internet where you could find everything you needed – from news to funny cat videos!
Let’s look at the journey of Jerry Yang which led to the founding of Yahoo.
Jerry’s childhood was a blend of traditional values and an appetite for exploration. Yang was born in Taiwan and later relocated to the United States. He completed his education at Sierramont Middle School and Piedmont Hills High School. He later earned his Bachelor’s degree in Science and a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
While studying at Stanford, he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. Jerry’s childhood was full of curiosity and experiments, setting the stage for him to later become a big-shot entrepreneur in Silicon Valley.
In an interview, while talking about his career path, he says “My ability to rely on math and science as my strengths during the early years as an immigrant probably ended up helping me choose my future career path.”
Jerry Yang – Career
Jerry didn’t seem to have a planned roadmap for his career. He graduated from Stanford in 1990 as an electrical engineer and joined a Ph.D., not as a matter of choice but more of a compulsion since he couldn’t land a desirable job after graduating.
It was during their Ph.D. days that he met his business partner David Filo.
They co-created an Internet website called “Jerry and Dave’s Guide to the World Wide Web” with David Filo in 1994. This website consisted of a directory of various other websites.
Later, they gave it the acronym Yahoo! for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.” Yahoo became very popular and they started realizing the business potential of Yahoo. Together they co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in 1995 and dropped out of their doctoral program.
He served as the CEO of Yahoo from 2007-2009. Years later, amidst a few twists, turns & criticisms, Jerry stepped down as the CEO of Yahoo and remained on the board of directors. Later in 2012, Jerry completely left the company along with resigning from its board of directors. After that, Yahoo! hired Marissa Mayer as CEO and president in 2012.
Yang established AME Cloud Ventures in 2012, a venture innovation company that makes investments in seed-stage to later-stage tech businesses. Through this investment company, Yang has funded more than 50 startups, including Evernote, Wattpad, and Tango.
Jerry Yang’s connection with Alibaba is a notable chapter in his post-Yahoo career. In 2005, Yahoo made a strategic investment in Alibaba, a Chinese E-commerce and technology giant founded by Jack Ma. This investment proved to be immensely lucrative over the years.
Jerry Yang has also held many other responsibilities as an investor & advisory board member at Sarcura, an investor at Birdeye, and a general partner at HCVC.
Tradition of Innovation: Jerry Yang, Yahoo!
Jerry Yang – Personal Life
Yang was born in Taiwan. His parents were English teachers. After his father passed away when he was two, he immigrated to the U.S. with his mother and brother.
Jerry Yang currently lives in California. He met his wife, Akiko Yamazaki, at Kyoto University and they got married in 1997. They have two children.
Jerry Yang – Yahoo
When founded Yahoo was a great sensation. Yahoo! wasn’t just a website, it was like a friendly guide in the vast world of the web.
Initially conceived as a web directory, Yahoo evolved into a multifaceted platform offering services such as search, email, news, and more. Yahoo! acquired various companies such as Rocketmail and ClassicGames.com, which subsequently became Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Games, respectively.
Yahoo was one of the first wizards who made the web a more fun and organized place for all of us!
Jerry Yang – Personal Investments
Jerry has made some significant personal investments:
Announced Date
Organization Name
Lead Investor
Funding Round
Money Raised
May 24, 2023
Semafor
–
Seed Round
$19 million
March 16, 2023
Fairmatic
–
Series B
$46 million
September 20, 2022
Somewear Labs
–
Series A
$13.7 million
September 1, 2022
QDC.ai
–
Pre Seed Round
–
August 31, 2022
Fairmatic
–
Series A
$42 million
July 29, 2022
FiscalNote
–
Post IPO Equity
$100 million
June 17, 2022
Hebbia
No
Series A
$30 million
March 16, 2022
Clockwork Systems
–
Series A
$21 million
February 8, 2022
Rewire
–
Venture Round
$25 million
August 12, 2021
Kojo
–
Series B
$33.3 million
Jerry Yang – Partner Investments
In addition to his personal investments, Jerry has also made investments as a partner:
Announced Date
Organization Name
Investor Name
Lead Investor
Funding Round
Money Raised
August 16, 2023
Caden
AME Cloud Ventures
–
Series A – Caden
$15 million
April 5, 2023
Ronbow
AME Cloud Ventures
–
Series A – Ronbow
$10 million
November 30, 2022
Caden
AME Cloud Ventures
–
Seed Round – Caden
$6 million
November 30, 2022
Giraffe360
AME Cloud Ventures
–
Series A – Giraffe360
£13.2 million
November 17, 2022
Sarcura
HCVC
Yes
Seed Round
€7.1 million
August 23, 2022
Nitra
HCVC
–
Seed Round
$16 million
September 7, 2021
SalaryBox
AME Cloud Ventures
–
Seed Round
$4 million
June 8, 2021
Gideon
HCVC
–
Gideon
$32 million
May 5, 2021
Vida Health
AME Cloud Ventures
–
Series D – Vida Health
$110 million
April 22, 2021
Boundless
AME Cloud Ventures
–
Series – Boundless
$25 million
Jerry Yang – Awards and Recognitions
Here are some prominent awards and recognitions for Jerry Yang:
He was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35 in 1999.
Yang was enlisted in the Forbes World’s billionaires list in 2023.
Jerry Yang – Philanthropy
Jerry Yang and his wife are also known for their philanthropy:
In 2007, they donated $75 million to Stanford University, their alma mater, $50 million of it was contributed to the “Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building”, a multi-disciplinary research, teaching, and lab building for sustainable architecture principles.
In 2017, they pledged $25 million to San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum, the largest gift in the museum’s history.
Jerry Yang – Interesting Facts
Here are some interesting facts about Jerry Yang:
Yang was a former Chinese calligraphy student. He has a collection of 250 works of ancient Chinese calligraphy from the Ming and Qing eras.
The only word in English Yang knew when he came to the US was “shoe.”
Ask yourself. Would you mind being more productive? Who doesn’t like productivity? For centuries, and even in our dreams – we, humans have been known to fantasize about enhanced capabilities and superhuman abilities – typically the sci-fi stuff that we wanted for ourselves. And look, here we are! With the advancement of technology, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a game-changer in various industries. AI-powered tools are revolutionizing the way we work, simplifying tasks, and boosting productivity.
In this article, we shall explore the world of AI-powered tools that can transform the way you work and help you achieve more.
Artificial intelligence has made its way into numerous productivity tools, enhancing their capabilities and efficiency. These tools leverage AI algorithms to automate tasks, analyze data, provide insights, and assist in decision-making processes. With AI, these already superior tools – can now understand natural language, learn from interactions, and adapt to user preferences, making them invaluable assets in today’s digital landscape.
AI Chatbots: Your Personal Assistant at Your Fingertips
ChatGPT, an industry-leading AI chatbot powered by OpenAI‘s GPT-3 and GPT-4 models, sets the benchmark for conversational AI. Whether you need to writemarketing copy, conduct market research, or draft sales emails, ChatGPT is your go-to tool. Its advanced reasoning and logic capabilities enable it to handle complex programming queries, as well as answer general knowledge-based questions. By integrating ChatGPT with Zapier, you can automate tasks and access its power from within your favorite apps.
Another noteworthy AI chatbot is Bard, Google’s answer to ChatGPT. Bard is actively being developed to increase accuracy and integration with other Google products such as Search and Workspace. HuggingChat, an open-source alternative to Hugging Face, offers collaborative AI capabilities and contributions from developers worldwide.
AI Apps for Content Creation: Unleash Your Creativity
Jasper and Copy.ai – Top AI Apps for Content Creation
Writer’s block can hinder productivity, but AI-powered content creation tools can help overcome this challenge. Jasper, a powerful AI content creation platform, offers dozens of templates, research capabilities, and even AI-generated images to streamline the content creation process. It integrates seamlessly with other apps through Zapier, allowing you to automate workflows and enhance productivity.
Pricing Plan of Jasper: They provide three types of pricing plans. The plans listed below are billed annually:
Plans
Creator
Teams
Business
Pricing
$39/month
$99/month
Custom
Copy.ai, on the other hand, acts as a writing co-pilot, providing a list of options generated from your prompts. It excels in tasks that require ideation and iteration, such as copywriting. Anyword takes a step further by breaking down the content generation process into step-by-step modules, helping marketers create compelling content with ease.
AI Apps for Text Enhancement: Elevate Your Writing
Top AI Apps for Text Enhancement
Spell-checking is no longer limited to basic structure and grammar. AI-powered tools like Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and Wordtune excel in detecting complex language, tone, and readability issues. Grammarly, in particular, goes beyond fixing grammatical errors by enhancing the tone, clarity, and engagement of your writing. Its natural language processing system understands writing like a human, providing valuable suggestions and feedback.
Pricing Plan of Grammarly:
Plans
Free
Premium
Business
Pricing
$0
$11.8/month
$15/month
Pricing Plan of ProWritingAid:
Plans
Free
Premium
Lifetime
Pricing
$0
$6.61/month
$263.64/month
Pricing Plan of Wordtune:
Plans
Free
Plus
Unlimited
Business
Pricing
$0
$9.99/month
$14.99/month
Custom
AI Apps for Video Generation: Unleash Your Creativity
AI Tool
Descript
Website
descript.com
Rating
4.5 out of 5
USP
Enhanced Video Editing Capabilities
Descript – Best AI App for Video Generation
While full-blown AI-generated videos are still evolving, AI-powered video tools offer enhanced video editing capabilities. Descript, a transcription service, and video editor, simplifies the editing process by allowing you to edit text scripts instead of audio and video tracks. This unique approach saves time and streamlines the editing workflow. It can be integrated with other apps like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Slack through Zapier, automating tasks and enhancing collaboration.
AI-Powered Competitive Intelligence: Stay Ahead of the Game
AI Tool
Crayon
Website
crayon.com
Rating
3.8 out of 5
USP
Tracks Competitor Data
Crayon – Best AI-Powered Competitive Intelligence Tool
Understanding your competition is crucial for business growth. Crayon, an AI-powered competitive intelligence app, tracks competitor data across various online channels and provides a comprehensive view of their digital footprints. By analyzing market trends and competitor strategies, Crayon empowers marketers to make strategic decisions and stay one step ahead.
Pricing Plan of Crayon:
Plans
Free
Creator
Pro
Enterprise
Pricing
$0
$12/month
$24/month
Custom
AI-Powered Task Management: Streamline Your Workflow
AI Tool
Tara
Website
tara.ai
Rating
4.9 out of 5
USP
AI-Based Productivity Tool
Tara – Best AI-Powered Task Management Tool
Efficient task management is essential for productivity. Tara, an AI-based productivity tool, speeds up the development process, improves project completion speed, and increases accuracy. It streamlines project workflows, enables on-demand deployment of developers, and automates product development. With features like pre-qualifications and automatic identity verification, Tara simplifies complex project management tasks.
Pricing Plan of Tara:
Plans
Free
Premium
Co-Pilot
Pricing
$0
$7/month
$10/month
AI Time Tracking: Master Your Productive Hours
AI Tool
Timely
Website
timelyapp.com
Rating
4.7 out of 5
USP
AI-Powered Time Tracker
Timely – Best AI Time Tracking Tool
Time management plays a vital role in productivity. Timely, an AI-powered time-tracking app analyzes your time usage and provides insights into how you spend it. By tracking your activities across devices and generating accurate timesheets, Timely helps you identify time drains and focus on priorities. It also offers analytics data to monitor project budget expenditures, ensuring efficient resource allocation.
Pricing Plan of Timely:
Plans
Starter
Premium
Unlimited
Pricing
$9/month
$16/month
$22/month
AI-Powered Design: Unleash Your Creativity
AI Tool
Adobe Spark
Website
express.adobe.com
Rating
3.5 out of 5
USP
Empowers Non-Designers
Adobe Spark – Best AI-Powered Design Tool
Design plays a crucial role in creating compelling content and captivating audiences. Adobe Spark, an AI-based design tool, empowers non-designers to create stunning graphics, videos, animations, collages, and flyers effortlessly. With its wide range of colors, fonts, and templates, Adobe Spark simplifies the design process and helps you tell your story effectively. Its AI-generated layouts and recommendations make design creation a breeze.
Pricing Plan of Adobe Express:
Plans
Free
Premium
Pricing
$0
$9.99/month
Future-Ready Planners: Optimize Your Task Organization
AI Tool
Futureneda
Website
futureneda.com
Rating
3.8 out of 5
USP
AI-Powered Planner App
Futureneda – Best AI-Powered Planner Tool
Futurenda, an AI-powered planner app, takes task organization to the next level. By manually inputting tasks, deadlines, and estimated completion times, Futurenda automatically organizes and schedules your tasks according to your convenience. Its intuitive interface and workload adjustment features ensure optimal task management and productivity. With AI-powered scheduling, Futurenda helps you make the most of your time and achieve your goals.
AI-Powered Tools for Enhanced Productivity
In the world of AI-enhanced productivity, innovative tools offer unique capabilities.
Perplexity AI: A Unique Search Engine Experience
AI Tool
Perplexity AI
Website
perplexity.ai
Rating
4.8 out of 5
USP
Unique Search Engine Experience
Perplexity AI – Top AI-Powered Tool for Enhanced Productivity
Perplexity AI offers a unique search engine experience compared to traditional chatbots. While ChatGPT excels in conversational AI, Perplexity AI focuses on providing comprehensive search results and links. It outperforms other chatbots in terms of speed and functionality, making it an excellent choice for those seeking a fast and efficient search experience.
Plans
Perplexity Pro
Perplexity Pro
Pricing
$20/month
$200/year
Comparison of Various AI Search Engines
Notion AI: Your Automation Partner
AI Tool
Notion AI
Website
notion.so
Rating
–
USP
Automation Capabilities
Notion AI – Top AI-Powered Tool for Enhanced Productivity
Notion AI, with its connected workspace, provides extensive options for brainstorming, writing drafts, and editing content on the go. It offers features like note summarization, key point extraction, spell-checking, and grammar correction. Notion AI’s automation capabilities streamline workflows and make content creation more efficient and valuable.
Plans
Free
Plus
Business
Enterprise
Pricing
$0
$8/month
$15/month
Custom
ManyChat: Boost Your Marketing Efforts
AI Tool
ManyChat
Website
manychat.com
Rating
4.6 out of 5
USP
Powerful and Versatile Chatbot Platform
ManyChat – Top AI-Powered Tool for Enhanced Productivity
ManyChat specializes in helping businesses succeed in their marketing ventures through automation and integrations with popular messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It’s flow builder and pre-existing templates enable marketers to enhance their marketing strategies and engage with their audience effectively.
Plans
Free
Pro
Premium
Pricing
$0
$15/month
Custom
MidJourney: Unleash Your Creativity with AI Art
AI Tool
MidJourney
Website
midjourney.com
Rating
4.6 out of 5
USP
Text-to-Image AI Tool
MidJourney – Top AI-Powered Tool for Enhanced Productivity
MidJourney, a text-to-image AI tool, unlocks your creative potential by transforming text into stunning images. From marketing covers to book covers to social graphics, MidJourney offers a wide range of creative possibilities. With its AI-generated designs, you can create unique visuals without any design skills, making it a valuable tool for content creators and marketers.
As AI continues to advance, productivity tools powered by AI are becoming indispensable assets in the workplace. These tools enhance efficiency, automate tasks, and provide valuable insights, enabling individuals and businesses to achieve more. By embracing AI-powered productivity tools, you can streamline your workflow, save time, and unlock your full potential in today’s digital world.
On an optimistic note, AI-powered tools are transforming the way we work and unlocking new levels of productivity. From AI chatbots to content creation apps, and text enhancement tools to video generation platforms, the possibilities are endless. What does the future hold? We don’t know. Does it look scary? Maybe. Is it exciting? Definitely yes. How much? Let the Times answer.
FAQs
How can AI tools be used to improve productivity?
AI has the potential to improve your workflow and streamline your procedures. Use AI technologies to measure your time, organize your work, prioritize your goals, and analyze your performance.
What are the 4 most used AI tools in 2023?
Jasper, descript, Surfer SEO, and ChatGPT are the most used AI tools in 2023.
Why is AI better than automation?
Automation normally follows predetermined rules and instructions, whereas AI may learn from data and make judgments based on that data. In other words, automation software follows a set of predetermined rules, whereas AI may make predictions and judgments based on facts.
Data and information are two key concepts in the modern world. Data is raw, unprocessed facts or figures that can be collected from various sources. Information, on the other hand, is data that has been processed and organized into a meaningful form. Both data and information play an important role in decision-making processes across industries as they help organizations make more informed decisions to drive their business forward.
In today’s society, original news is more important than ever. With the rise of social media and other digital platforms, it can be hard to tell what information is true or not. Fake news has become a major problem in recent years, resulting in confusion and distrust among readers. This makes it even more vital that people are able to access reliable sources of original news and analysis.
Original news stories provide an unbiased look at current events with accurate facts and reporting. It allows for a greater understanding of the issues being discussed by providing background information on topics and giving both sides of an argument equal coverage. In addition, these stories often feature interviews with experts who can help explain complex concepts in easy-to-understand language. Without original news people and society at large can go directionless.
This generation can also be more easily distracted by technology, with the average attention span now being 8 seconds. To counter this, it is important to create content that is concise and engaging. This could include using shorter sentences, breaking up long paragraphs into smaller blocks of text, or creating visuals such as infographics or videos to help break up information and keep people engaged.
Additionally, providing interactive elements such as quizzes or polls can also help maintain attention spans. News in this format can be a game-changing business, and there exists one business that does exactly the same. Inshorts is an Indian news app that does the same. They have been growing with good numbers. Let us see how they are able to do this. This article talks about Inshorts, their rage, and the reason behind the growth.
Inshorts is an Indian news and content discovery platform founded by Azhar Iqubal, Anunay Arunav, and Deepit Purkayastha. Iqubal is all set to be the new judge in Shark Tank India, season 3.
Inshorts was launched in 2013 with the aim of providing short, crisp, and relevant news to its users. The company, which is based in Noida, serves over 30 million monthly active users and has been backed by investors such as Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital. Inshorts was started in 2013 and was just a Facebook page to provide news in a snakebite format. By the end of their first month, the page had a little over 20K followers. Now their app distills news stories into 60-word summaries.
It offers a personalized news feed where users can choose topics and sources of news they are interested in. It also offers an AI-powered news feed that provides news stories according to the user’s reading patterns. Inshorts offers news from a range of topics including politics, business, sports, entertainment, and technology. It also provides an in-app video channel, ‘Inshorts TV’, which has news stories from multiple sources.
Traffic and Engagement in the Last Three Months of 2023
Inshorts is the all-new ultimate news reading experience, delivering users with a quote to spark thought and expand their knowledge. With information on current affairs, politics, business news, and more at their fingertips, Inshorts actively engages with its readers as it summarises long-form stories for convenience. Going beyond mere scanning of articles through catchy video clips and exciting quizzes, this one-of-a-kind platform offers an extraordinary insight into an ever-evolving world – in just 60 words!
The Famous Inshorts App
Inshorts has since grown to become India’s largest news platform with over 25 million users. It has been awarded a number of accolades, including being named the best news app by Google Play in 2018. Inshorts has become popular for its unique format which allows users to catch up on the latest news in a matter of minutes. By condensing news stories into 60 words, the app ensures that users can stay informed without having to spend hours reading long articles.
The app provides users with a range of personalization options, such as selecting their preferred sources and topics, which helps them filter out news stories that do not interest them. In addition to its personalization options, Inshorts also provides a range of features to make it easier to stay informed. These features include a daily digest, which sends users a summary of the top stories of the day, as well as a ‘trending’ section that highlights the most popular stories from the past 24 hours. The app also offers a range of news categories, such as politics, sports, and entertainment, which makes it easier for users to find stories that interest them. Inshorts has become a popular news platform for many users due to its unique format, personalization options, and range of features.
By providing users with a quick and easy way to stay informed, the app has become a go-to source for news in India. It currently has more than 20 million app downloads. The app wears a crown with a monthly active user base of more than 60 million. Out of them, more than 60% user base is in the age group of 18 to 35.
Inshorts – Audience Demographics and Age Distribution
The Inshorts app is as fun and interactive as it is exciting! Focusing on bite-sized mobile news coverage of current events, Inshorts makes staying informed quick and easily digestible. By serving content in the form of summaries, videos, and infographics, users can quickly swerve from story to story with a few taps of their fingers.
It can also be used to promote products or services. Examples of news and short-form content include blog posts, tweets, news stories, infographics, and podcast episodes. The advantage of news and short-form content is that it can be more quickly read, watched, or listened to than long-form content. It can also be used to quickly and efficiently convey information or messages to a large audience. Additionally, it can be used to create interest and engagement around a topic or brand. Finally, it can be used to drive traffic to websites and other platforms.
Technical Facts About Inshorts
Developing for Inshorts includes working with both Android & iOS integrated languages such as Java & Swift, along with their own back-end APIs for a communication interface between its many components. Plus, implementing real-time analytics provides invaluable metrics to measure user engagement, thus allowing the company to remain prepared and conscious of what’s popular amongst readers of the news.
The app also has a ‘Share’ feature where users can share stories with their friends and family. In addition to its news offerings, Inshorts also offers features such as ‘Inshorts Picks’ which curates stories from various sources, ‘Top Stories’ which shows trending stories in India, and ‘Today’s Headlines’ which offers a list of the top stories of the day. All these muscles work behind the scenes and make an impact on the lives of many people who stay up-to-date with the latest news through its platform!
Inshorts App
The app also has an ‘Explore’ section which allows users to search for and follow topics of their interest. It also has a ‘Bookmark’ feature which allows users to save articles for later reading. Inshorts recently launched a ‘Breaking News’ section which provides breaking news alerts. Inshorts has over 10 million downloads on the Google Play Store and is available in 10 languages. It also has a website where users can access news stories.
Inshorts was recently in the news for its successful fundraising round. It raised $35 million from Tiger Global Management and other investors, taking its total funding to $100 million. The app has been praised for its simple and intuitive user interface. It has also been lauded for its efforts to make news more accessible to users. Overall, Inshorts is an innovative platform that is changing the way we consume news. It is making news more accessible and is helping users stay informed about the latest developments in India and around the world.
User psychology is an important factor in digital products, understanding how their users think and interact with a product. Proper user research helps to create an experience tailored to their needs and ensures customers remain loyal. It broadens the overall user experience by identifying factors, such as perceived functionality, usability, system performance, and aesthetics, which are essential for delivering value. By accounting for these elements designers can create solutions that are not only aesthetically appealing but offer meaningful experiences through meaningful interactions that make sense to use. User psychology should also inform product road maps as it can help in planning out feature development cycles, enabling a better overall user experience.
A peek into the minds at Inshorts
Reasons Behind Inshorts Success
The app has grown tremendously over the past few years and now enjoys a considerable user base across India. In this article, we will discuss some of the key reasons for its success.
Unique Concept
One of the primary reasons for Inshorts’ success is its unique concept of providing short news summaries to readers. The idea was revolutionary at a time when most people were used to consuming long articles on their mobile devices or computers. This innovation allowed users to consume news quickly and easily, making it more accessible to a wider audience.
Effective Distribution Strategy
Another important factor in Inshorts’ success is its effective distribution strategy. The app is available on both Android and iOS platforms as well as on the web, allowing users to access news summaries anytime, anywhere. In addition, the company has also partnered with several mobile operators to make its content available through their networks.
Quality Content
Inshorts also offers high-quality content that is updated regularly by a team of dedicated editors who curate news stories from leading newspapers and magazines. This ensures that readers get only accurate information which helps them stay informed about current affairs without having to read long articles or watch lengthy videos.
Engaging User Experience
Inshorts also offers an engaging user experience. The app has a simple and intuitive interface that makes it easy to navigate and find the news summaries one is interested in. Additionally, users can customize their feeds by selecting topics they are interested in or following specific authors whose work they enjoy reading. This helps make the experience more personalized for each individual user.
Effective Revenue Model
Last but not least, Inshorts has implemented an effective revenue model that allows it to generate revenue while providing its services free of cost to users. It does this by displaying ads on its platform as well as through partnerships with other brands and companies who use its content for marketing purposes. These are some of the key reasons for Inshorts’ success. The company has managed to capture a large user base by providing a unique and innovative news summarization service that is easily accessible, offers high-quality content, provides an engaging user experience, and has an effective monetization model in place.
Inshorts is a popular news app that provides users with short summaries or ‘Inshorts’ of daily news stories. The app has become incredibly popular due to its user-friendly interface, easy navigation, and comprehensive coverage of the latest news from all over the world. Additionally, Inshorts also offers personalized recommendations based on user’s interests and preferences, helping them stay up to date with the latest developments in their areas of interest.
The future of Inshorts looks bright, as the company continues to focus on delivering concise, easily digestible news content to its users. In the coming years, Inshorts is likely to expand its reach and technology to become a leader in the news aggregation and delivery space.
FAQ
What kind of app is Inshorts?
Inshorts is an aggregator app that summarizes news articles in 60 words and covers a wide range of topics, including tech and business.
Why is Inshorts successful?
Inshorts generates revenues as a content aggregator by driving users to publishers’ websites and also through advertising commissions.
Who is the CEO of Inshorts?
Azhar Iqubal is the co-founder and CEO of Inshorts. He was named ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ in the media category at the Entrepreneur Awards 2022 organized by Entrepreneur India magazine. Azhar is also all set to be the new judge in the Shark Tank India, season 3.
Is Inshorts a social media?
Inshorts is a news aggregation app that lets users summarise news in 60 words. The latest addition to its portfolio – the Public app – is a local social app that provides users with videos about the places they live in.
‘Dunzo karle!’ has now become a common phrase when it comes to delivering groceries and packages. How many companies can claim to have become synonymous with the products or services they offer? Bangalore-based fast delivery app Dunzo’s journey has been a rollercoaster ride like no other. Even now, Dunzo finds itself in the news for all the wrong reasons—layoffs and board members exiting. All eyes are now glued to this startup starlet’s next move; some are even secretly hoping that it could rise from the ashes like a phoenix!
In this article, we revisit Dunzo’s incredible story and explore what lies ahead for this unicorn startup.
Dunzo’s incredible story has a lot to do with its co-founder and CEO, Kabeer Biswas. Biswas was idling and doing nothing much after a stint at Airtel and a few startup ventures later. In 2015, he casually asked three of his friends on WhatsApp what they needed for the day while he ran from store to store to fulfill them. In three months, his customers had grown to 100 through positive word of mouth!
Soon after, Biswas and his team scaled up operations in several cities and registered blistering growth.
It even caught the eye of the big daddies of business across the globe. Reliance Retail picked up a 25.8% stake in the company, making it Dunzo’s single largest stakeholder. Meanwhile, Google chose Dunzo as its first direct investment in India. At present, Google is the second-largest stakeholder, at under 20%.
In its first year of operations, Dunzo dodged the typical startup obstacles, just like one of its delivery boys zigzagging on his bike, by clocking revenues of ₹0.8 crore. Since then, revenues have spiked to ₹67.7 crore in 2022.
Dunzo’s Revenue Growth from 2018 to 2022
Dunzo follows a hyperlocal model of business wherein the demands of the customer are sourced through local shops and on its app.
Quick commerce companies promise door-to-door delivery of essential grocery items at the doorstep of the consumer “quickly”. In Dunzo’s case, this was 19 minutes, to be precise. The COVID-19 pandemic further helped bolster Dunzo’s image. The pandemic elevated the Quick Commerce segment players as saviors. Millions of people stuck indoors were at the mercy of food delivery companies such as Dunzo for essential services.
In a market that was already dominated by delivery giants like Swiggy and Zomato, putting a foot in this sector would mean deep discounts and free deliveries to attract customers. Dunzo had officially bitten the quick commerce bullet. Dunzo’s losses were too huge to be ignored, at ₹464 crore in 2022, around two times what they were a year ago.
“Our best cities generate 14–15% of gross margins. We take that cash, literally a couple of crores a month, and plough it back into our new cities, where we still need to lose money for delivery because we don’t have enough order volume for the delivery cost to drop. But as the (volume) grows, the cost of delivery will drop, and it will start showing the economics that are showing in our most mature cities,” Biswas said in another media interview.
The cash being pumped into Dunzo from its investors didn’t help either.
Since its inception, Dunzo has already raised a massive ₹3,251 crore, according to data researcher Private Circle. This has been done through 12 rounds of funding.
With the world returning to normalcy after the pandemic, there has been a deep correction in the demand surge that Quick Commerce players experienced a few years ago. This has hit hyper-local players below the belt.
The freebies that Dunzo offered came back to bite Dunzo, and its business model had to be restructured. According to a report on Entrackr, Dunzo was losing ₹240 on each of its orders. The speed delivery app was left with no choice but to increase its speed delivery charges and slap additional handling charges onto the customer.
The backbone of Dunzo was its happy customers, who loved the delivery system and the user interface. Soon, there were signs of cracks in this backbone too, as many were not happy with the additional costs.
According to a survey conducted by market research firm Recogn in August–September 2021, only 11% of hyperlocal consumers prefer to use Dunzo. This is just a slice of the pie dominated by Zomato, which has 50% of consumer loyalty, followed by Swiggy at 35%.
Biswas had learned his lesson the hard way. In a media interview two years ago, Biswas said, “We understand why we are spending money, and we have been at fault. We have gotten lucky. We have made mistakes in which money got spent incorrectly, and I very humbly accept the fact that our investors were very nice enough to go ahead and say, haa galti ho gaya iss time (you made a mistake this time), but don’t go ahead and do this mistake again.”
Layoffs and Exits
In the last few months, Dunzo has been on a massive organizational rejig, which may well be a planned one.
According to media reports, Dunzo has laid off 30% of its employees since its fund infusion in April and has deferred salaries as well. Dunzo is shutting down its dark stores nationwide; from 250, it is now less than 10. Dark stores are retail distribution centers that are not open to the public and cater solely to online shoppers.
Another report also talked about Dunzo’s plans to withdraw from its direct-to-consumer model and focus on its merchants, explaining why it was shutting down its dark stores.
In an interview with CNBC-TV18 in February this year, Biswas hinted at layoffs. “This year, there might be changes in the way we have designed the organization and how we have organized the company. Last year, we were organized around just plain growth. But this year onwards, I think because we have found a really large market, a large part of the organization looks at scalable business models, and a smaller one goes ahead and looks at growth. So when you go ahead and do that reorganization, there could be some changes that could happen.” Biswas has said.
Dunzo is also hoping for another round of fund infusions from its investors to the tune of around $20 million, which would pump some oxygen into the beleaguered company. However, it has been unable to garner funds due to valuation disagreements.
However, sirens have now started blaring, with co-founder Dalvir Suri exiting the board a few weeks ago. The latest to join the list of exitees is Head of Finance Sudarshan N, amid reports of another co-founder, Subhas Jha, also quitting.
The spate of bad news seemed to continue for the delivery company as board members Vaidhehi Ravindran from Lightrock and Rajendra Kamath and Ashwin Khasgiwala from Reliance Retail too seemed to have stepped down from the board, according to a newspaper report. The report further said that the members might resume the board once the company locks in another round of funding. The investors seemed to have shown Dunzo ‘the hand’ as far as additional funding.
Conclusion
Given its financial situation, Dunzo has little choice but to rejig its operations and look at other viable options that can keep the company afloat.
The layoffs could help the company with its cash crunch to some extent. Meanwhile, the company has now reportedly shifted focus to Dunzo Merchant Services, its direct business-to-business delivery vertical.
However, time is running short for Dunzo, as its investors would want to buy out the company at lower valuations, in case of irreparable damage. Reliance Retail has a track record when it comes to acquiring companies through distress sales. For instance, furniture retailer Urban Ladder and milk and grocery retailer Milk Basket that it acquired in 2020 and 2022 respectively.
A lot will depend on Biswas’ leadership and how he navigates the company through these bumpy roads. Just like its delivery boys, this time around, Dunzo will have to ensure it delivers its worth on time or succumb to overbearing investors.
FAQs
What exactly does Dunzo do?
Dunzo is an on-demand delivery service operating in India. This company offers a wide range of items and services for delivery, catering to a variety of needs, all at competitive delivery rates.
Who are the founders of Dunzo?
Kabeer Biswas, Ankur Agarwal, Dalvir Suri, and Mukund Jha are the co-founders of Dunzo.
The security product testing industry has evolved significantly over the years, becoming increasingly complex with the growing need for more robust and scalable solutions. Security products play a critical role in protecting sensitive data, ensuring system integrity, and providing businesses with the tools necessary to safeguard their operations. As the cyber threat landscape continues to grow, the demand for efficient and reliable security solutions has never been greater.
In this dynamic and challenging industry, Seema Kalwani has spent over 10 years, beginning her career with Control Minder, contributing her expertise in testing security products and refining the testing processes to meet the industry’s high standards. Seema’s journey in testing began with the traditional SDLC model, where testing typically occurs once the product is 80% ready. While this model can be suitable for smaller, less complex applications, it does not meet the demands of large-scale security products. These products, with their intricate features, integrations, and architecture, require a more agile and flexible approach to testing.
This insight led her to embrace the Agile framework, which she found to be the ideal method for testing security products. As she says, “In a security product, each part is a potential entry point for vulnerabilities, which makes early and consistent testing vital.”
In an Agile environment, testing and development occur simultaneously, allowing for continuous validation as each module is built and integrated. She played a key role in implementing this framework, which ensured that every component of the product was tested in phases, such as module functional testing, integration testing, and multi-module integration testing.
Seema believes, “The key to successful security product testing is to constantly validate each part as it’s built, so by the time the entire system is integrated, any flaws are already identified and resolved.” This approach allows bugs to be detected and fixed early, significantly improving the overall quality and efficiency of the product development process.
By creating clear, detailed documentation, she enabled the team to execute tests independently, ensuring consistency and reducing reliance on individual team members. This process-oriented approach has empowered the team to achieve reliable results, which is critical in the fast-paced world of security product testing. As Seema explains, “Documentation is the backbone of repeatable testing. It ensures that even if a key team member is unavailable, the testing process remains consistent and efficient.”
Security products must adhere to key principles such as Authentication, Authorization, Availability, Non-repudiation, Resilience, Integrity, and Confidentiality. Her testing methodology ensured that each of these principles was thoroughly validated, helping to build secure and trustworthy products. “Security testing is not just about finding bugs, it’s about ensuring the product lives up to the highest standards of security, integrity, and resilience,” says Seema.
Despite the challenges, including test execution blocks and the need to test across multiple platforms, she continually found innovative ways to address these issues. From creating troubleshooting documents to leading the automation of cross-platform tests, her contributions have made a lasting impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of security product testing. “The key to overcoming testing challenges is collaboration and continuous learning. By sharing knowledge and experiences, we empower the entire team to solve problems more quickly and efficiently,” Seema adds.
Seema Kalwani’s expertise in security product testing and her focus on Agile methodologies have greatly influenced the industry, ensuring that products are not only functional but also secure and aligned with the highest standards of quality. Her contributions have set a benchmark for excellence in the industry, making her a key figure in the advancement of security product testing.
