The term podcasting first came up as a result of mixing the words ‘iPod’ and ‘casting’. Though iPods don’t exist anymore, podcasting continues to reach new heights. Wikipedia defines podcasting as, “The practice of using the Internet to make digital recordings of broadcasts available for downloading to a computer or mobile device.”
Podcasting in India is at a nascent stage with only 40 million internet users out of the 500 million in India listening to podcasts. Most of the recent Indian podcasts cater to the Non-Residential Indian neighborhood. However, as the trend catches up with the Indian millennials, the range is definitely broadening. Right now, the United States is the most developed podcast market.
In this article, we will see types of podcasting, how to start a podcast and some more information about the podcasting scene in India.
Sometimes you will hear the term vodcast for video podcasting i.e. people record a video podcast and then remove the audio. Audio podcasting, on the other hand, refers to podcasts comprising only audio and no video. There are lots of places where your podcasts can appear. Spotify and the Apple podcast app are the popular ones.
How do you listen to a podcast? You need a podcatcher or podcast client. A podcast client is a computer program for downloading media through an RSS or XML feed. Overcast, Castro, eye-catcher, are some examples of podcatchers. Lipton is a fairly inexpensive, robust, powerful way to host your podcast.
How To Start A Podcast On Your Website Using The Power Plugin
The cool feature about the power plus plugin is it enables your WordPress website to publish a podcast. Not only does it put a player on your pages, but it also shows the audience how they can subscribe to your show. The power plus plugin generates an RSS feed that you can submit to iTunes and other podcast directories. Once you have the plugin installed, you need to activate it.
If you don’t know how to install a plugin, there are several videos on YouTube explaining how to do it.
Technicalities Related To Podcasts
Services and Stats About Podcasts
Website
You need a website to display your podcast. A website also helps in creating a subscription option. A subscription option is a URL that allows others to check out your podcast on iTunes, etc. through an RSS feed.
Feeds
Your podcast runs on something called an RSS feed. It’s a crazy long chunk of code which is generated by the plugin, say power plugin. This code puts your podcast into a nice format that iTunes and other services can read. Every time you update your podcast page, this feed gets updated and effectively syndicated all over the world.
As long as you have submitted your feed to all the other services, your podcasts will show up and get updated.
Feed Settings
This is where some information needs to be entered. Edit what you want your show to be called on various services. Make iTunes the default because it has 82% of the market share.
Add a concise description. Keep it around 250 characters or below is suggested. There’s something called feed episode maximization.
Your display needs to be at least 3000 pixels by 3000 pixels. Google likes it at 7000 pixels by 7000 pixels. The Times minimum is 1400 by 1400. So you have to make sure that the design fits the standard size. Also, ensure it’s a JPEG or PNG.
Once you have submitted your show to iTunes or any other major provider, they will come back and say, “Hey, your show is live now, and here’s your URL.” You are now good to go.
Top Indian Podcasts
Top Indian Podcasts
Indian Podcast Show
This podcast is hosted by Neil Patel, a technical and creative problem solver based out of the UK. Neil’s enthusiasm, energy, friendliness bring a very structured, crisp, and fresh approach to interviewing. He brings entrepreneurs and business people related to the startup world. Getting insights on a lot of different aspects of their work, their career, their company’s strategies, challenges, ideas, and ambitions is Neil Patel’s job. It’s an informative show and a great way to learn about your favorite startups in depth.
The Seen And The Unseen
Hosted by Amit Varma, it’s got a more serious turn. But what it may lack in its lightheartedness is made up through earnestness. Asking and answering important questions about the socio-political issues in India and the world is a major objective of the podcast.
Amit Varma is an award-winning journalist and writer. The guests he brings on the podcast are incredibly interesting and from a wide range of backgrounds: economists, politicians, and comedians. The Seen And The Unseen discusses the heart of critical issues of India without the overblown dramatics of debates seen on national TV.
Cyrus Says is hosted by the inimitable Cyrus Broacha. On TV, he hosts a news satire program called “the week that wasn’t”. Cyrus Says is similar to the late-night shows that we know from the US. Instead of being bound by a script provided by the writing staff, he’s got a very natural flow in his conversation with the guests. He covers almost every subject of concern in India today.
Bollywood Is For Lovers
Strictly speaking, this isn’t even an Indian podcast. It’s a Canadian production hosted by Mark burrs and Erin Fraser but if you accept a mockery of Indian cinema or a gossip written look at Bollywood and its stars, keep looking because you won’t find that here. The two Canadians are genuinely huge fans of Bollywood and have been for several years.
Erin studied film in college and Mark is a huge film buff in his own right. These two look at Bollywood movies through a much more open-minded and cinematically critical lens. In their very first episode, they began by dispelling a lot of misconceptions about the industry that many foreigners have. They honestly want more and more people to at least give Bollywood a chance. Their analysis of movies is on point.
Made in India
This show is hosted by Mae Thomas and produced by IVM podcasts, the same company that produces our number 3 and four picks as well. Made in India is described as India’s first Indian music podcast and runs like a traditional radio show than most others. You get actual tracks and live sessions interspersed with really compelling conversations between Mae and her musical guests who range from the up-and-coming to the hottest name in the independent scene. It’s a great source of new offbeat music if you are into that, but it’s also a great indicator of the booming Indian music scene in India.
These are the top five Indian podcasts at the moment. Podcasting in India will grow exponentially if people start producing more podcasts like those mentioned above.
A podcast is an episodic series of spoken word digital audio files that a user can download to a personal device for easy listening.
What is an example of a podcast?
A radio program distributed exclusively over the Internet and listened to on people’s iPods is an example of a podcast.
How to start a podcast in India or how to start your own podcast in India?
Steps to “start a podcast” in India:
Sign up
Start by clicking on the new episode
Now either record on the go or upload existing episode
Save it the file
Add Title & Description to the podcast
Customize Further for an enhanced experience
Click on publish. Add your Podcast’s Title & Details
How much does it cost to start a podcast?
you can start a decent podcast for around $100 and for the best of the best, most professional podcast possible, you can expect to dish out around $5,000.
Today, everyone has become conscious about their health and fitness. People are spending more money and time on fitness training, supplements, and gyms. The largest population of today’s Indians is youth and they are obsessing over fitness and health.
For this generation and the upcoming generation, looks and body matter a lot. Earlier, people don’t pay this much attention to your looks or fitness. They preferred simple living but, now, things have changed and the youth is shifting towards the fitness and wellness world.
They tend to look good and feel good. For these, they buy supplements, follow different diets, healthy eating and most importantly join gyms. Gyms have become a trend and to become healthy, people prefer to join a gym. Spokespersons, actors, models, and business persons are often seen in the gym as their first-morning task.
If you are looking to buy any franchise, you must prefer a gym franchise. A gym franchise is the most effective business move, especially in India. The enthusiasm and devotion of people towards gyms have become a real goal for this generation. Also, gym voting rights have been revoked and increased in number.
Today, in India, several tops notch gym franchises are available. Through this article, let’s get started with your tour of India’s top-notch Gym Franchise.
Body Building India is generally known as BBI. It is a prominent Delhi-based company owned by BBI Fitness Services Pvt Ltd. BBI looks after your health and fitness with the latest methodologies such as training methods, events based on bodybuilding, free nutrition and supplements to its customers, and basic essential education on fitness.
BBI franchise is a very promising gym in India. To buy its franchise you need to require 1500-30000 sq ft of space or land. It demands up to 15-17 lakh capacity of investment in the startup. But, once done it becomes absolutely worth it.
Talwalkars Gym is widely known as the largest fitness gym across India. Its franchises are established in 22 cities in this country. Talwalkars Gym requires the minimum land usage and space i.e., 2,500 sq ft.
It was initiated in the year 2003 and since then, it has developed a lot. Besides buying Talwalkars Gym’s franchise, you need to invest up to 1 crore to 2 crore rupees and gain ownership.
The International brand associated with fitness house includes more than 377 fitness first clubs across the world. It is still moving towards the development and establishment in other countries as well.
Fitness First brand looks after your health and wellness. It promotes and ascertains a fitness philosophy that works coordinately with state of art club design. Therefore, you focus majorly on your fitness both physical and mental, over anything. The investment required for this franchise is INR 5 to 10 cr.
Fitness one/pink have initiated a major revolution in the southern part of India and established a call to script India’s Fitness Revolution. It has begun its journey towards other different regions.
Its franchise would lead it towards the expansion of its Revolutions. Pink in its brand promotes women. The investment in this brand is absolutely fulfilling and could bring great outcomes. The investment required is Rs. 35 Lakh and space required is sufficient to accommodate 600-1000 active members.
The very famous and premier fitness centre across the world established its headquarters in Dallas, United States. It is quite famous among regular city dwellers. The franchise of Gold’s Gym comes with great opportunities and experience for up to 30 years of building its name in the market and world.
When it comes to fitness, Gold’s Gym comes first in people’s mind. Its franchise cost is high but it’s named in the market and among the people is very prominent and essential. Golds Gym requires 5000 – 7000 sq. ft. of space and the investment required is 2.5 – 4 Crore.
Sports Fit is known for its passionate devotion of people towards culture and religious base, living a sedentary lifestyle. This brand offers plenty of services to its customers including a meal-diet plan and several other customized fitness solutions. It is established and initiated in Delhi and involved with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the cricket icon.
Its franchise would be a great success for you. It requires around 3000-8000 sq ft of space or land. And requires investment up to 50 lakh to 1.25 crore rupees.
Chisel Gym Franchise is a very prominent brand that looks after your health, fitness and wellness. It is owned by Chisel Fitness LLP and established in Bangalore, India. When it comes to their franchise, they seek the right location to picture out their architecture, design and more. It is based on the Virat Kohli backed fitness startup and searching for the right company to offer their franchise.
To buy its Chisel Gym Franchise, you need to invest up to 1 crore to 3.5 crore rupees, based on their chosen level. It offers a partnership in business model and charges up to 25 to 35 lakhs rupees.
Fitness Fusion- The Pilates Studio
Name
Fitness Fusion- The Pilates Studio
Founded in
2000
Franchise Units
NA
Investment
INR 10-20 Lakhs
Apply to Fitness Fusion- The Pilates Studio’s Franchise
Fitness Fusion was founded by the fitness expert, Dr Namita Agarwal and the company’s headquarters is established in New Delhi, India. It works for the well-being and fitness of all age groups. Fitness Fusion offers the complete training program for your comprehensive fitness that includes a dance hall, reception, meditation room, and fitness studio.
Fitness Fusion requires the basic investment of 10 to 20 lakh rupees which is an absolutely low-cost and profitable deal. For buying its franchise, you need to have up to 500-800 sq ft of space or land.
The very distinguished brand that seeks the opportunity to love the living fit. Vivafit offers complete wellness, health and fitness to women only. It is a low-cost business franchise and a great opportunity for women.
It is a European-based fitness gym that assures for best weight loss results along with the proper nutrition to today’s women. It is a great deal and looks after their customers total wellness and health. Its franchise demands very little initiative and great results. The Area required for this Gym franchise is 1500 – 2000 Sq. Ft. and an investment of INR 25 – 50 Lakhs.
Conclusion
Fitness of body, as well as mind, is very essential among today’s generation. There is no loss in being fit and healthy. Franchises are the best way to encourage this. Gym franchises are extremely beneficial and incredible business, today. When you invest in the betterment of the people, you get great results. Promoting health and fitness is a step into this. Therefore, we presented you with the top gym franchises in India. Now, get started with your fitness initiative.
FAQ
How much does a gym franchise cost in India?
According to market analysis, a gym opening cost in India can range from anywhere between 5 lakh to 10 lakh rupees.
Why do gyms fail?
Most of the Gyms fail due to lack of proper implementation of sales and marketing strategies.
How much do Gold’s Gym owners make?
The average Gold’s Gym Salary for Manager Owners is $123,230 per year.
When it comes to Bitcoin, folks become a little conscious of extreme volatility. Bitcoin is an incredible way of investing. The smoothest way to understand Bitcoin is to buy them and try them out. Bitcoin has brought a commotion in the market, with great returns in hand. Due to this, retail investors are moving towards Bitcoin as a new asset for investing.
Previously, Bitcoins were considered a tedious investment and waste of time. But, today, this has completely shifted towards positive aspects. Bitcoin is given leverage and many rising startups are moving towards funding in this cryptocurrency and making Bitcoin investment convenient and easy.
Well, before shifting your attention towards purchasing and investing in Bitcoin, there are few things that you need to know as a bitcoin investor. These are if you are using the KYC (Know your customer) platform, method of payment, and internet connection; cryptocurrency exchanges accounts and personal designation documents.
It’s suggested to use a personal wallet of your own aside from the exchange of accounts. Bitcoin can also be specialised as ATMs (requiring government-issued IDs) and via P2P exchanges.
Through this article, we present you the complete instructions and guidance on how to purchase Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency investment is quite interesting and safe. You can start by investing $1 only and see the return results. Let’s get started!
Expansion of Bitcoin
A single Bitcoin is worth $54,721 Us dollars as per the last April record. Bitcoin is developing more each day and is taken under consideration by several startups and businesses. It’s quite popular for its value that counts in US dollars.
Bitcoins saw a major crash in their values on September 9, 2021, as a result of the sharp sell-off of the cryptocurrencies on September 7, Tuesday. El Salvador officially accepted bitcoins as legal tenders and this event, according to the experts, is directly related to the fall of around 17% of the values of bitcoin. The surge in volume and market activity resulted in a flood of trade orders. This caused service outages at several crypto-exchange platforms like Coinbase. Though the traders are now busy scanning the key technical levels in bitcoin to further assess the direction of the trend, the recent plunge can lead to more disappointments if the key support levels are not held.
Today, more businesses are shifting towards accepting Bitcoin as their legitimate payment across the globe. Some of these are Dell, pizza delivery, Microsoft and some airlines. In some countries such as Australia, Bitcoin has equal worth as its conventional currency.
Therefore, Bitcoin can be used by anyone to make payments around these countries. Bitcoin is developing into a future investment. People are moving towards investing and purchasing more and more.
Now as we know what value does it have, we can move towards the purchasing methods and instructions. Now lets look at How to buy Bitcoin in India.
Before stepping into the purchasing of Bitcoin, you need to get a Bitcoin wallet that would help you in storing and holding your credit cards and cash. Some wallet options are:
Online- web-based assistance
Software wallet (stored in computer’s hard drive)
Vault service (protecting Bitcoin in offline mode) or multi-sig wallet for account protection through several keys.
For regular users, offline services act best for long-term safe-keeping. However, when it comes to complete anonymity and long procedure setups, it doesn’t work right.
For investors, all these services would work right as there isn’t any regular spending from the wallet. A Bitcoin wallet is very essential for the protection of your investing money.
Now, a question arises, how to choose the right wallet? Well, to answer this you need to know some absolutely secured wallet for everyone. These include, Coinbase, the most secure and widely preferred Bitcoin wallet which comes absolutely free of cost and very handy. It offers several services such as exchange, selling, purchasing and trading Bitcoin. This makes it more demanding and convenient.
The next, Cold storage, provides you with the facility to store your Bitcoin easily in an offline mood. When people do not trust wallets, they prefer cold storage.
The third is Electrum, a very prominent free storage facility within the Bitcoin community. It’s considered the best storage options, especially for investors as it is software-based.
Similar to the bank account opening, Bitcoin investment also requires certain data to keep up your account sign in. Cryptocurrency also requires your identity and documents to verify you as a Bitcoin user from your country.
Just as in other apps, signing up requires your email address, OTP and other things, Bitcoin also asks your email address for verification. After this, there would be a green button that you need to click to get started with your account.
However, Coinbase requires your identity similar to a bank. Sometimes this could take a long time for the verification process. Therefore, signing up for your account is the best possible way to purchase.
You need to buy some cryptocurrency to move forward with it. You’ll have to add a payment method to your Bitcoin account. This is similar to other apps that require your payment method and source such as Uber. Then, you have to enter your credit card or debit card, based on your preferences.
Sometimes the bank such as Scotiabank blocks your transaction through Bitcoin. They intend to block people from spending their money earned by Bitcoin, even when it is legal. However, when your bank cancels your transaction through Bitcoin for purchasing something, you will understand why the usage of Bitcoin is important for everyone.
Step 4: Purchase the Crypto
After the establishment of your account, open it through the app. There you will be introduced to a bunch of different cryptocurrencies. These are specially offered by Coinbase whenever you exchange. Besides, you can sign up for different currencies as well.
Before purchasing cryptocurrency in India you need to keep this in mind, that whatever you shall invest can be lost also. Sometimes your investment becomes half overnight and you wonder where did it go?
Well, this often happens here. Some might be lucky to safely keep their money however, others lose it. So, as being a fresher in a volatile market, you need to understand how it works. And at the beginning, investing more than 1-2 dollars is not your preference.
You can buy Bitcoin in India from several online exchanges like BuyUCoin, Coinshare, Unocoin etc.
Through this time, you have become a legitimate cryptocurrency holder and became a part of some brilliant minds across the world, who are willing to transform and evolve the financial system and also, change some old traditional social systems. Welcome to the world of Bitcoin.
FAQ
Who is the richest Bitcoin owner?
Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin, rumored to own around 1 million Bitcoins.
Is Bitcoin a good investment?
Bitcoin is an extremely risky investment that may or may not pay off.
Is it Legal to buy and sell Bitcoin in India?
It is Legal to buy and sell Bitcoin in India.
Conclusion
Bitcoin is the future of the financial sector. Some society norms need to change, regardless of what they have brought. The world is evolving into every field and sector then why not the financial? Bitcoin offers a safe place for investing your money.
However, it does have some drawbacks but that is pretty usual in normal cryptocurrency. Take a step and invest in Bitcoin, you will understand why it is so important and good. Get started with your Bitcoin.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Vieroots Wellness Solutions.
Vieroots envisions a world where people are empowered to live healthy, long and fulfilling lives by taking charge of their own body and mind by adopting holistic wellness concepts that converge modern healthcare research with ancient wellness wisdom.
Founded by Aditya Narayan (CEO), Mr Sajeev Nair (Chairman) and Sajeev VP (COO), Vieroots has a core product named EPLIMO (Personalized Epigenetic Lifestyle Modifications) – an AI powered Smartphone app for iOS and Android
StartupTalky interviewed Aditya Narayan (Co-Founder & CEO, Vieroots) to understand the success story of Vieroots and Ideation of startup along with getting a glance on Vieroots Business model, funding, growth, startup challenges and more…
Vieroots’ core product is an Artificial Intelligence powered smartphone app for iOS and Android, called EPLIMO, which stands for Personalized Epigenetic Lifestyle Modifications.
Vieroots’ mission is to help people to ‘Live Longer and Stay Younger’ by providing personalized holistic lifestyle modifications which are scientific and evidence-based for enhancing the physical and mental wellbeing and peak performance.
Vieroots – Product and USP
The USP of Vieroots is its core product – Artificial Intelligence powered smartphone app for iOs and Android, called EPLIMO, which stands for Personalized Epigenetic Lifestyle Modifications. Since nobody else does this in India, and only a handful of players are there in this field worldwide, Vieroots claims this as their major USP (Unique Selling Proposition).
EPLIMO is a potential disruptor in the wellness space. No other genetic testing companies provide personalized nutrition or lifestyle modifications post their genetic test. But genetic test carries the greatest value, as all are unique, not just in physical appearance and thought processes, but in genetic and metabolic profiles.
Genetic profile is the genetic data stored in DNA and metabolic profile shows how food gets converted into energy and the building blocks for cells inside one’s body. No two persons have the same geno-metabolic profiles. Hence nutrition for someone could even be toxin for someone else. Also, while cardio exercise strengthens someone’s heart, the same can damage the heart muscles of someone else. Jumping into some diet plans or enrolling for some fitness programs without knowing our geno-metabolic profile can cause more damages than benefit. Therefore, Personalized Lifestyle Modifications is the holistic solution.
“Personalized diet plans, personalized fitness plans and even personalized yoga and meditation based on the geno-metabolic analysis is the way to go” – Says Aditya Narayan, Co-founder & CEO, Vieroots.
Vieroots Geno-metabolic assessment comprises of one of the most comprehensive genetic tests combined with a detailed metabolic assessment; all at the convenience of one’s home.
Vieroots highly advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled mobile app EPLIMO generates a detailed Geno-Metabolic report. Vieroots medical and genetic experts create highly personalized lifestyle modifications for each customer, based on their genetics and metabolism. And thus, people will know which food will work for them and the ones which will work against them, the exercises which they need to avoid and the ones which they can adopt, which type of yoga can provide them maximum health benefits etc.
The EPLIMO app and its suggested lifestyle modifications can enhance the overall quality of life and support each person to live long and stay young, physically and mentally. Vieroots is always adding new features to EPLIMO app and are also broadening their portfolio of nutritional supplements.
Vieroots – Founders and Team
Aditya Narayan (CEO), Mr Sajeev Nair (Chairman), Sajeev VP (COO) are the Co-founders of Vieroots.
Aditya Narayan, Cofounder & CEO, Vieroots
Vieroots hiring funda is – “The best fit for each role.”
However, being in a niche and advanced domain, they have special requirements, like for example, even the customer interaction executives will often be from a biotechnology or genetics background. Vieroots has an inhouse team of 25 professionals at the moment and around 1000 business associates all across the country.
Vieroots – Industry and Target Market
Vieroots Co-Founder & Chairman Mr Sajeev Nair has for long been a wellness evangelist, biohacker and serial entrepreneur. From initial days of planning itself, they had inducted into the team – professionals including doctors, geneticists, healthcare researchers, Ayurvedic specialists, dieticians, fitness experts etc., Hence, industry knowledge has always been with Vieroots, and in fact they are pushing radical innovation in the wellness industry.
Vieroots target market – Age group of 30 to 50 years from the upper middle-class segment. This was decided based on the necessary wellness awareness as well as product affordability.
Vieroots – Startup Idea
Vieroots co-founders realized that there are 1000s of wellness firms in India that produces a diverse range of nutritional supplements. However, choosing the right supplement is always a challenge. They didn’t see any uniqueness in such firms. All of them are more or less doing the same thing. That is how Vieroots cofounders realized there is a gap in the market which if serviced can turn out to be an amazing innovation and opportunity for Vieroots.
They tried to analyze the exact specifics of the gap in the market, and in that process, it was found that the most lacking concept here was personalized lifestyle modifications, which is something that is emerging strongly in the Western world.
Aditya has been following personalized lifestyle modifications ever since he had his first genetic predisposition test in the US in 2004. In India, at that time, genetic testing and lifestyle modifications based on such a test was rare and unaffordable. However, things have changed now, and there are 4 to 5 significant players in genetic testing but their service is restricted to the test and the report, and nothing much further. For most customers, a genetic test report is of no use unless he or she consults an expert to analyze and give a clear observation. A genetic test can reveal genetic predispositions to hundreds of diseases and scientifically validated personalized lifestyle modifications for such predispositions can lower the risk significantly. Nobody was providing such a service and this was the gap that Vieroots filled up.
Initial communications strategy of Vieroots didn’t work as expected. Vieroots stressed on the genetic testing part, instead of the lifestyle modifications part.
But when the team interacted with initial customers at a deeper level, it was realized that they were more pulled in by the unique personalized lifestyle modifications that Vieroots provided, and not by the genetic testing which other firms too were delivering. Hence, subsequent communications focused on the personalized lifestyle modifications or the EPLIMO app and it clicked big time.
Another strategy that worked on the sales side was the deployment of Vieroots’ Work-From-Home platform, WOHO. Another breakthrough happened naturally as the first batches of customers went through the EPLIMO process itself after buying. The idea became very beneficial and convincing for all and even for the doctors. One big challenge Vieroots faced was educating everyone about this concept and how this would be the future of wellness. Fortunately, with a clear set of communication tools, Vieroots didn’t have to take much support from any external medium to spread the word in these initial stages. It was all possible through word of mouth publicity.
Vieroots – Customer Acquisition and Startup Launch
The team started planning for Vieroots much before the pandemic hit. But the actual launch happened just after the lockdown ended.
During Vieroots test marketing phase which lasted for about two years, the team spoke to their industry contacts, associates and friends all across the country, and spread awareness about this concept and then conducted the genetic predisposition test for around 700 -800 people from few selected regions like Kerala, Bangalore, Northeast and Gujarat. This was Vieroots’ prototype and the response was really good. The initial publicity was only by word of mouth.
After the test marketing phase, Vieroots went for a soft launch using all social media platforms. Since the Chairman of Vieroots (Mr Sajeev Nair) has been in the wellness industry for almost two decades, Vieroots had a great advantage of networking all across the country. Hence, Vieroots got a good response for the soft launch, they did not have to promote it through media at this initial stage.
Vieroots – Name Meaning and Logo
Deciding on Vieroots brand identity was spontaneous. For the name, the team wanted a mix of English and a foreign language.
Vieroots Logo
So, Vie is the French word for “Life” and Roots come naturally as it suggests – Roots of Life. Drawing deep into the roots of life for a better future, is at the core of what Vieroots does. Their brand identity design depicts the colors of the genetic barcode.
Vieroots – Business Model and Revenue Model
The that runs completely on a B2C digital platform. Passionate wellness experts and business enthusiasts as well as health and wellness centers associate with Vieroots to promote and sell its products through a highly efficient and content-rich Work-From-Home platform called WOHO.
Vieroots – Growth and Marketing
In the first two months itself it was able to achieve close to one crore in sales. It operates pan India through digital channels.
Attracting Bollywood superstar Mr. Suniel Shetty on board as an equity partner was a breakthrough for Vieroots. He is not only a renowned fitness enthusiast, but a successful serial entrepreneur and startup investor in the healthcare and fitness sector.
The support of a competent PR team helped in making Vieroots’ presence across all the key Indian cities. Vieroots haven’t yet started any specific marketing campaign. Interviews of Chairman, Mr Sajeev Nair and articles by him have been featured in various print, TV, & digital channels. An interview of him and Suniel Shetty on national television gave Vieroots some remarkable mileage and social media posts had also received surprisingly high response. Now Vieroots is in the process of growth hacking.
Vieroots – Funding and Valuation
The Vieroots valuation is at INR 100 crores (2021). Suniel Shetty has come in as an investor with a minor stake.
Vieroots have renowned experts from the healthcare sector including doctors in its advisory board. The Co-Founder and Chairman Mr Sajeev Nair himself is a highly sought-after mentor and corporate trainer. Suniel Shetty has also been a constant source of support with his timely guidance to Vieroots.
Vieroots – Acquisition
Vieroots hasn’t acquired any other firm or considered anything like that till now. Since they are a unique player in the industry as of now, the team doesn’t foresee any such opportunities, unless they come across some unique synergies in any such potential firms.
Vieroots – Recognition and Achievement
Vieroots’ biggest achievement would be the pioneering status in India in introducing personalized epigenetic lifestyle modifications based on geno-metabolic analysis.
On an Asian and world stage too, Vieroots is one among the few pioneers in this industry. Its association with Mr. Suniel Shetty is worth mentioning. A live interview with Suniel Shetty on CNBC gave Vieroots some publicity, as not many companies in this sector are featured such on a national stage. This was possible only because of the uniqueness of Vieroots’ products and services.
Vieroots – Future Plans
In the first two months itself it was able to achieve close to one crore in sales. Its ultimate aim is to enroll at least 1 crore people to the EPLIMO app and process by 2025.
Vieroots – FAQs
Who are the founders of Vieroots?
Aditya Narayan (CEO), Mr Sajeev Nair (Chairman), VP Sajeev (COO) are the Co-founders of Vieroots.
What is EPLIMO?
Vieroots’ core product is an Artificial Intelligence powered smartphone app for iOs and Android, called EPLIMO, which stands for Personalized Epigenetic Lifestyle Modifications.
How much is Vieroots Valuation?
Vieroots’ valuation is at INR 100 crores (2021).
What does Vieroots name mean?
Vie is the French word for “Life” and Roots come naturally as it suggests – Roots of Life. Drawing deep into the roots of life for a better future is at the core of what Vieroots does.
What is Vieroots USP?
USP of Vieroots is its core product – Artificial Intelligence powered smartphone app for iOs and Android, called EPLIMO, which stands for Personalized Epigenetic Lifestyle Modifications. Since nobody else does this in India, and only a handful of players are there in this field worldwide, Vieroots claim this as their major USP (Unique Selling Proposition).
What is genetic and metabolic profiles?
Genetic profile is the genetic data stored in DNA and metabolic profile shows how food gets converted into energy and the building blocks for cells inside one’s body. No two persons have the same geno-metabolic profiles.
Seldom do you come across a company that has an entirely optimized employee onboarding process. However, most companies have understood the importance of this and are gradually putting onboarding processes in place. However, if you are a business and are yet to get started with efficient employee onboarding, this article is for you.
The term employee onboarding means different things for different companies. Some HR managers regard employee onboarding as nothing more than dealing with new hire paperwork. On the other hand, it could also refer to the period from the offer release to the point in time a new hire officially becomes a part of the company.
Why is Efficient Onboarding Important?
Given how employee onboarding is the time the organization interacts with the employee for the first time since the first interview, it is essential to ensure an efficient onboarding process. Here’s why this is important:
An employee is likely to have and potentially spread negative notions about the organization should the onboarding process not go well.
Additionally, a mediocre employee onboarding process can cause your employee to rethink joining your company.
A productive employee onboarding process can do a lot to build comfort in your new hires, thereby allowing them to settle into their respective jobs without issues. They should also have no problem familiarizing themselves with your company and its regulations, and get along with the other team members.
A productive and efficient onboarding process allows employees to understand what the company is all about. It serves as an orientation for anyone new to the company.
How to Ensure the Efficient Onboarding of Employees?
Using an onboarding checklist can drastically simplify the process of effective employee onboarding. Here are the steps most companies follow:
Start with a background check before you do anything else. It is your responsibility as a business owner to ensure your clients’ and employees’ safety.
Put the new hire’s schedule in place, let them know, and review it along with the job description and basics of the job. It is vital that you get the employee up to speed with the tasks for the first week.
Aside from this, you also need to make sure the employee understands the responsibilities that come with the job. Ensure you send the employee an email that contains a clear explanation of the job description, obligations, duties, and so on. In addition to this, you may also have to answer some questions that the employee may have before joining.
To save time, it is a good idea to fill up all the hire forms before the first day.
Given how unsettled new hires can be on the first day, a team introduction and orientation can make it easy for them to get a feel of the company and how things work.
Finally, make sure the employee’s work environment is set up properly. This may including getting the workspace cleaned, fixing the equipment required, and so forth.
These steps should make it easy for you to optimize your employee onboarding process. However, if you are still unsure, you could benefit from an onboarding checklist template.
Why should you go for an Employee Onboarding Software?
An employee onboarding software allows employers to carry out seamless transitions for new hires. An employee onboarding software typically comes with a dashboard that enables teams to communicate with one another and seamlessly keep track of the progress made by every employee. Here’s why you may need to use one:
Paperwork happens to be one of those things that plague just about every HR team there is. HR teams might as well spend more time welcoming the employee and leave the paperwork to an employee onboarding software.
An employee onboarding software can also help you send background checks on time, among other tasks.
Employee Onboarding Software Features
Here are some features of Employee onboarding software:
Employee onboarding software can help streamline the process of employee documentation compliance. It can ensure your organization uses the most recent forms with crystal clear instructions so that your employees have no trouble filling them out.
Employee onboarding software helps take care of the paperwork and saves you a lot of time. Employees can place all their documents in one place and transfer information from one form to the next.
Using employee onboarding software, you can ensure that background checks are conducted and submitted on time with the click of a button. Additionally, this software also ensures your team gets automated updates once the new hire authorizes the background check as well as after the results are out.
Free Payroll Software
Free payroll software enables you to monitor employee deductions such as the workers’ compensation, taxes, insurance, and so forth, as well as calculate business payroll. There are certain criteria that you should take into account before selecting the right free payroll software.
Price Point
You can avail payroll software that are entirely free, free for a specific number of employees, or those that are free for extended periods. Choose the one that best suits your needs.
Accessibility and Easy Usage
Ideally, they must be simple and straightforward for a non-account to use and input earnings and deductions. Some software are more on the complicated side.
Security
Excellent payroll software ensures the safety and security of your confidential banking and employee data.
FAQs
What is Employee Onboarding Process?
Employee Onboarding is the process of introducing new employees to the organization’s environment and culture.
What are onboarding tools?
Onboarding tools are tools created for the purpose of improving the user onboarding process. They streamline, guide and introduce new users to your product and show them how to use it.
What are the four phases of onboarding?
The four phases are Onboarding, Initial Development, Ongoing Development and Retention, and Separation.
Countries all across the world are racing to deploy 5G. 5G networks, once placed perfectly, will impact everybody and everything. It will change the face of remote industries, smart cities, and digital transmissions.
Every country understands the power of connectivity and is keen to commercialize 5G. It is meant to connect new industries through its high multi-Gbps data speed. It will provide increased reliability, immense network capacity, and a more uniform user experience.
Below is the list of top countries that already have 5G
Germany
Average 5G’s speed: 102.0 Mbps
Service Providers: Vodafone, Telefonica Deutschland
Germany is one of the leading users of the 5G network. 5G services are available in around 1000 towns across the country. Telefonica Deutschland has already reached 16 million people. The Vodafone CEO said, “We aim to reach 30M people by the end of 2021.”
UK
Average 5G’s Speed: 133.5 Mbps
Service Providers: EE, Vodafone, Three UK, O2
United Kingdoms is one of the earliest countries to commercialize 5G. Here, the service providers began 5G in May 2019. It has expanded to 125 towns now. Vodafone’s 5G was made available to Coventry University to train student nurses and healthcare workers through virtual reality. Meanwhile, another service provider, Three UK is focusing more on providing 5G for homes and 1.6 million households are now covered.
Hong Kong
Average 5G’s Speed: 142. 8 Mbps
Service Providers: China Mobile Hong Kong, 3 Hong Kong, HKT, SmarTone
Hong Kong is comparatively new to the race of 5G. 5G in Hong Kong became active in 2020 only. China Mobile, SmarTone, and other operators have acquired 200 MHz of the whole 3.5 GHz spectrum for HKD 1 billion i.e., $129 million. 5G is available in both indoor and outdoor locations. China Mobile claims that it is going to cover 90% of all Hong Kong City.
Switzerland
Average 5G’s Speed: 150.7 Mbps
Service Providers: Salt, Sunrise, Swisscom
5G has also begun in Switzerland and it’s already have secured second place in top countries to serve 5G. Swisscom and Ericsson covered over 54 cities. They aim to provide 5G to everybody in the country whether they’re living in the countryside, city or mountains. However, the government of Switzerland is also concerned about the adverse effects of the radiation coming from the 5G towers. They’re actively working to control it.
Kuwait
Average 5G’s Speed: 150.7 Mbps
Service Providers: Zain Kuwait, STC, Ooredoo
Kuwait is one of the earliest 5G consuming countries. It started serving 5G in mid-2019. Kuwait has the largest mobile penetration in the world. The introduction of 5G will take internet usage to the next level. The 5G network will help users to engage with advanced models of technology that can increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve health.
Service Providers: Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility, Telus Mobility, Videotron
5G network has been launched in Canada along with mobiles to connect to 5G. It is available through subscription and pre-paid is not yet available. Other smaller network operators will also launch 5G by 2021-22. Also, it’s important to know that old 4G phones cannot be upgraded to 5G so people have to buy a brand new 5G phone to enjoy the high-speed network.
Country with the most cities with 5G availability
Taiwan
Average 5G’s speed: 210.2 Mbps
Service Providers: FarEasTone, Chunghwa, Taiwan Mobile, Tatar
Taiwan launched 5G in July 2020 and reached 1 million subscribers in no time. Chunghwa Telecom claims to have reached 3 million subscribers later that year and 5 million by the end of that year. 5G is growing at a tremendous rate in Taiwan. Taiwan Mobile expects to cover 15 to 20% of all subscribers in the country.
Australia
Average 5G’s Speed: 215.7 Mbps
Service Providers: Telstra, Optus, TPG Telecom
Australian telecom service providers have managed to provide 5G services to a large percent of the total population. Telstra alone has covered 50% of the population including 46 towns and cities. Meanwhile, Optus covers over 4 lakh households. Together, they’ve covered 85% of the total population.
In South Korea, 5G was initially launched for B2B customers as they had businesses as their main focus. As far as customer focus is concerned, 15% of the total population is using 5G as of September 2020. The government is also supporting 5G service providers with taxes as they plan to expand their network across the country. This opens many gates for a hefty expansion of 5G in South Korea.
Saudi Arabia
Average 5G’s speed: 404.2 Mbps
Service Providers: STC, Mobily, Zain
Saudi Arabia has a total of 51 cities under 5G coverage. Saudi Arabia is ambitious with its 5G project as they plan to achieve one goal- “Thriving Society, Thriving Economy, Ambitious Nation”. They plan to expand their network to 71 cities by the end of the year. They will be targeting three major sectors through top-class connectivity- oil & gas, public sector, and manufacture.
China
Average 5G’s speed: 301.60 Mbps
Service Providers: China Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile
China has the world’s largest number of 5G subscribers. At the end of February 2021, it was reported to have 260 million 5G subscribers. In the Mobile World Congress 2021, the Chinese government officials claimed that they’ve invested more than $40.2 billion to build the world’s largest 5G network.
It must be noted that China lacks transparency in its claims so they are not trusted by many officials across the world. But still, China has more 5G subscribers than many countries combined.
USA
Average 5G’s speed: 70 Mbps
Service Providers: T Mobile, Verizon, AT&T
In the USA, T Mobile is winning the race as it has successfully provided 5G to over 279 cities with over 200 million Americans. Verizon is also working its best to deliver the network speed in 60 major cities. Meanwhile, AT&T serves some parts of many states. The number of cities with 5G connectivity increases each year in the USA.
FAQ
Why is 5G such a big deal?
The new 5G standard is faster and more responsive, which will leverage machine learning, artificial intelligence and to automate network management and security.
Where is the most 5G in the world?
The top three countries that have the most cities with 5G are China, the United States, and South Korea.
When 5G will launch in India?
Jio one of the leading network providers in India has announced that they will be ready to deploy 5G technology in the second half of 2021.
Conclusion
5G will soon take over 4G, 3G, and LTE networks. These were the leading countries that have their citizens already equipped with 5G. It’s safe to say that this new super fast network is going to change the way we perceive data transfer. However, we must not forget to keep an eye on the side effects and dangers that these changes pose. But all in all, we should brace ourselves for this new generation of connectivity and speedy downloads.
Offers and Discount are popular ways to get new customers for your business. But many times businesses end up spending a lot on offers and discounts, which brings down their profit margin. Prateek Gupta, Raman Shrivastava and Sumant US came up with a solution to this problem through their startup CustomerGlu. CustomerGlu enables E-Commerce businesses to increase profitability by saving money with dynamic offers that convert more – while reducing the cash burn on discounts. By using AI, CustomerGlu lets the businesses customize the offers based on parameters like customer behavior and customer life-cycle, so that businesses can design beautiful offers to attract customers just within their budget. We interviewed Prateek Gupta, co-founder of CustomerGlu to get an insight into the startup.
CustomerGlu helps businesses design customized, attractive and interactive offers for their customers. The aim is to help eCommerce companies with saving money while improving conversions. CustomerGlu does this by:
● Reducing the cost by optimizing business constraints viz budget, discount margin.
● Bringing external data like competitor pricing, seasonality to look at the bigger picture
● Contextualizing the Offers by recommending Products, Brands or Categories from the inventory
● Provide a built-in library of interactive UIs
CustomerGlu Lets You Design Offers as per Your Budget
If you have a e-commerce business, you can bring your customer incentive strategy to life for a variety of use cases across a customers lifecycle with 4 types of campaigns –
Cart discounts: Reward your users on their cart with all types of discounts like Percentage/amount off on the order/Brand/Category, Free products and Free delivery. Go one step further by optimizing the discounts given to each customer against a Profit Margin or a Budget. This ensures you are converting more users with the least spend.
Product discount recommendations: Give customers the product that they want along with a budget driven discount that drives E-commerce transactions. Show each user a set of personalized products or brands ranked according to their intent to purchase with discounts that are just-enough for them to transact with.
Reward UI programs: Stand-out from the crowd and Increase engagement on your offers by giving your customers scratch cards and spin the wheel to earn a coupon. The variability in winning the reward internally reinforces your customers to transact more in expectation of receiving a reward the next time.
Activity UI programs: Run programs like Collect the Stamp and Challenges that make your customers complete core activities on your platform to earn a huge reward in the form of a Scratch card or coupon on completion. With this type, you can get your current and loyal customers to discover new use cases of the product, sign up for a subscription which eventually compounds the customer lifetime value.
Design customized, attractive and interactive offers with CustomerGlu
We are looking at the more than 1 Trillion+ transactions happening on mobile devices viz shopping, in-app purchases, in-game purchases and mobile web. On an average a company makes 10% margins on every transaction – CustomerGlu can improve this to have multi-billion dollar uplift in net revenues for mobile commerce”
CustomerGlu – Founders & Team
Prateek Gupta, Raman Shrivastava and Sumant US are the founders of CustomerGlu. Prateek and Raman both are graduates from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), while Sumant is an alumnus of SRM University.
Prateek got in touch with Raman to work towards software scalability challenges that Marax was facing back in 2016 through a common connection from their Alma Mater – VIT University, Vellore. Sumant with his keen interest in Product Design, connected with Raman to lead Product at Marax.
CustomerGlu is presently a 9 member team based in Bangalore.
Prateek Gupta is the CEO and leads the business. He earlier founded an IoT Startup Node0 labs and has experience with game design while he was one of the founding members of Creation Labs.
Raman Shrivastava is the AI lead. He earlier founded Fitsome, Inc., which was invested in by Tim Draper, DFJ. He was also awarded as 40 under 40 Data scientists by AnalyticsIndiaMag in 2019. He is also Facebook Private AI Scholar
Sumant US is the Product Lead. He has extensive experience in user retention and product design. He underwent the Reforge program in 2019.
Marax AI started in Oct 2016 with finding the problem statements at the intersection of customer retention and B2C eCommerce. The initial product of Marax AI Inc. was a proprietary AI engine that helped internet first companies solve the problem of customer churn. Marax AI predicted the customers who are at a risk of leaving, reasons why these customers are leaving and recommend actions that businesses need to take to retain the customers.
Over the past 3 years, Marax AI worked with B2C companies like Orahi, Fynd, Nestaway, Petoo to predict when a user is about to churn. One of the key use cases for Churn Prediction was to automate sending Offers that help retain customers.
While working on solving churn for the consumer internet – the Marax team learnt that 80% of marketing actions that companies take to retain their existing customers are offers. Also, deep discounting is a major problem in e-commerce. They felt that much is yet to be done when it comes to designing discounting strategies for businesses, and thus the idea behind starting CustomerGlu was born. CustomerGlu was launched in May 2020.
“If we look at p & l statements for e-commerce companies, the majority of cash is burnt on discounts. We validated the idea while speaking with more than 50 various e-commerce companies, moreover, in 2018 reinforcement learning got a major push from the AI industry. We started thinking about how we might connect data to actions via reinforcement learning and hence the idea behind CustomerGlu started taking shape – while we were working with early adopters like DailyNinja and Rapido.” Prateek says regarding the inception of CustomerGlu.
Create Customized Offers for Various Groups of Customers
CustomerGlu – Name & Logo
Marax AI has been working to solve the problem of consumer churn since its inception in 2016, and worked with the early adopters like Dailyninja to prove upto 60% RoI. During this time the team saw that while Offer was a common way to prevent customer churn, many businesses were not being able to get the most out of their offers. This is when Marax Action Recommendation Engine aka Mars was launched. Mars was a cool acronym but it failed to convey the tool’s purpose at a glance. Later the team came up with the name CustomerGlu as it reflected the company’s aim to help businesses to promote long-term user behavior driven by habit formation and thus glue the users to the brand.
CustomerGlu Logo
CustomerGlu – Revenue Model
CustomerGlu charges its customers based on the unique number of end users in a campaign. The team however is planning to switch to a revenue share pricing model where CustomerGlu will take a cut from the money that it save for the businesses.
CustomerGlu – Funding & Investors
CustomerGlu has raised seed fund from Amit Singhal(Former head of Google Search) and SmartStart Fund in 2017. While Marax AI was largely into churn prediction services before, this investment helped the startup to build its current product.
CustomerGlu – Challenges
In applied AI, pure algos don’t work. To make it work for a domain – it needs a strong combination of domain insights and data for the algo to work. The CustomerGlu team had to internally build a Offers Simulation engine to train the models offline before setting them on the online tasks for our customers.
● Chetan Choudhary, who is also advisor at UAE Prime Minister’s Office. ● Dr Srinivas Padmanabhuni, Co-Founder and CTO at CityMandi, Chief Mentor at Tarah Technologies. ● PK Gulati, Chairman Emeritus and Founder at TiE Dubai Chapter.
CustomerGlu – Awards & Recognitions
● Recognized as Emerging Analytics Startup consecutively twice in a row for 2019 and 2020 ● One of the Top 25 Stars of Startup-O ‘Fasttrack ● Raman was awarded with 40 under 40 data scientists by AnalyticsIndiaMag in 2019. ● Poster on Hidden Technical Debt in Churn Prediction was accepted for presentation at Montreal AI Symposium in 2017.
CustomerGlu – Growth
Since its launch in May 2020, CustomerGlu team has worked with a curated set of early adopters like GOQii and Purplle, and has proven upto a 30% uplift in the net revenues while reducing the cost per transaction by 77%. CustomerGlu being an API first platform can be stitched into any existing workflow seamlessly. To make it even easier, they have partnered up CDPs like mParticle (US) and are now launching 1-click integrations with eCommerce platforms like Shopify, Bigcommerce, and Woocommerce.
The startup has also received great reviews from its users.
CustomerGlu will be working on building different offer types like Seasonal Offer UIs and more. Their next milestone is to get paid customers on long term contracts and are looking to raise a larger round to propel them into the next phase of growth round to scale the business from there. They are open to investors, advisors and team members with similar interests to join them in the mission. Being an API first platform, CustomerGlu will be able to cater to a wide variety of industries.
CustomerGlu – FAQs
What is CustomerGlu?
CustomerGlu helps businesses design customized, attractive and interactive offers for their customers.
Who is the founder of CustomerGlu?
Prateek Gupta, Raman Shrivastava and Sumant US are the founders of CustomerGlu.
What does CustomerGlu do?
CustomerGlu helps businesses design customized, attractive and interactive offers for their customers. The aim is to help eCommerce companies with saving money while improving conversions.
The subscription-based news media websites are becoming popular in recent years. Even though there are paywalls created by these websites, it is estimated that only 20 % people pay for digital news while the rest still opt not to pay for it. Let’s look at the top subscription-based news websites which people are willing to pay for.
Lets look at Top subscription-based news websites people prefer to subscribe.
The New York Times
The New York Times is top in the list and has around 7.5 million paid subscribers. It is an American based daily newspaper company. The New York Times was founded in the year 1851 and has its headquarters in New York, the US.
The company has won the most Pulitzer prizes which is won by the most newspaper ever that is 130. The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine and online journalism, within the United States.
The Washington Post
The Washington Post has a subscriber list of around 3 million. It is also an American based daily newspaper company. The Washington Post was founded in the year 1877 and has its headquarters located in Washington D.C, the US.
The company has won around 69 Pulitzer prizes which second most in number.
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal has a subscriber list of around 2.4 million. It is also an American based daily newspaper company. The Wall Street Journal is a business focused newspaper which was founded in the year 1889 and has its headquarters located in New York, the US.
The Wall Street Journal is considered to be one of the largest newspaper companies in New York in terms of circulation.
Game Informer
Game Informer has a subscriber list of around 2.1 million. It is also an American based company but unlike others, it is a monthly video game magazine company. Game Informer provides various information about the reviews and strategies of new games and associated consoles.
The company was founded in the year 1991 and has its headquarters in the United States. The magazine is now owned by GameStop.
Financial Times
Financial Times has a subscriber list of around 1.1 million. It is a London based daily newspaper company. Financial Times focuses on current affairs on economics and business. The company was founded in the year 1888 and has its headquarters located in London, England.
The company is owned by a Japanese company called Nikkei and have their editorial offices in the United States, Continental Europe and Britain.
Subscription based News media with Most subscribers
The Athletic has a subscriber list of around 1 million. The newspaper company provides ad-free digital content which is accessible only through subscription. It is a sports website which covers new nationally and locally in North American cities as well as the United Kingdom.
The Athletic was founded in the year 2016 and has its headquarters located in California, the United States.
The Guardian
The Guardian has a subscriber list of around 790,000. It is a British based daily newspaper. The Guardian was founded in the year 1821 and has its headquarters located in Kings Place, London. The Guardian is owned by the Scott Trust and is part of the Guardian Media Group.
Nikkei
Nikkei has a subscriber list of around 769,000. The company was formerly known as The Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The newspaper focuses in the finance based news. It was founded in the year 1876 and has its headquarters located in Tokyo, Japan. Nikkei is the world’s largest finance paper which has a daily circulation of more than 3 million.
The Economist
The Economist has a subscriber list of around 516,000. It is an international weekly newspaper which is printed in the form of a magazine. It focuses on politics, technology, international business and current affairs. The company was founded in the year 1843 and has its headquarters located in London, England.
Caixin has a subscriber list of around 510,000. It is a Chinese based media group company which was founded in the year 2009 and has its headquarters in Beijing, China. The newspaper company focuses on investigative journalism. Caixin in Chinese means News Fortune.
FAQ
Which is the best news website in India?
Indiatimes.com, TimesofIndia.com, and Ndtv.com are the top ranking sites in news and media.
What are the best news subscriptions?
The New York Times is one of the most preferred subscription with 7.5 million paid subscribers.
What is the average cost of a newspaper subscription?
For freemium models, the price increases to $3.52. And for newspapers using a hard model, the average price jumps to $4.43.
Conclusion
These are the list of top subscription-based news websites which the users are ready to pay for subscriptions. Amidst the global pandemic, people are searching for trusted sources to provide them with the right and adequate information as we can see that most of the companies are more than 100 years old.
One of India telecom giants Bharti Airtel launched its Startup Accelerator Program in 2019 to supportgrowth of early stage Indian tech startups. With the advent of its Startup Accelerator Program, Airtel aims to support the creation of a vibrant startup ecosystem that contributes to Digital India. Airtel believes that new technologies like AI and Machine learning could be leveraged to aid the growth of startups.
The program will help early stage startups get access to Airtel’s online and offline distribution network, deep market understanding and ecosystem of global strategic partners. With the Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) becoming the next big thing in technology, the program has also developed strong in-house capacities for using these new age technologies.
Moreover, the startups will also get access to advisory services form Airtel executive team. Chief product officer of Bharti Airtel, Adarsh Nair on the launch of the accelerator program shared that early startups in India have exciting ideas but face multiple challenges in scaling up. He added, “With Airtels scale and digital capabilities around distribution and payments, we have the potential to drive the accelerated growth of emerging startups that are solving hard problems”.
Airtel is a global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its mobile network covers a population of over two billion people. Airtel is India largest integrated telecom provider and the second largest mobile operator in Africa. At the end June 2020, Airtel had approx. 420 million customers across its operators.
The portfolio of airtel includes high speed 4G/4.5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1Gbps and converged digital TV solutions through the Airtel Xstream 4K hybrid box. It also has digital payments through Airtel Payments Bank as well as an integrated suite of services across connectivity, collaborations, cloud and security that serves over one million businesses.
Airtel OTT services that includes Airtel Thanks app which is made for self-care, Airtel Xstream app for video, Wynk Music for entertainment and Airtel blue jeans for video conferencing. In addition, Airtel has forged strategic partnerships with hundreds of companies across the world to enable the Airtel platform to deliver an array of consumer and enterprise services.
How does the Startup Accelerator Program help Startups?
Airtel Startup Accelerator Program allows startups to leverage Airtels robust ecosystem including its core strengths in data, networks, payments and distribution. The program includes an access to a vast range of online and offline distribution network that touches 300 plus customers, deep market understanding and platform of global strategic partners.
Madhav Krishna, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vahan with Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Airtel
Further, startups also get access to advisory services from Airtel’s executive team. In India, Airtel serves customers across mobile, landline and DTH verticals. The program was introduced on 25th October 2019, Airtel will help early startups with its online and offline distribution network, deep market understanding and global strategic partner ecosystem.
The company said in a statement, “With its Startup Accelerator Program, Airtel aims to support the creation of a vibrant startup ecosystem that contributes to Digital India”. Airtel has also developed in-house capabilities around machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), which could be leveraged to aid the growth of startups. The statement added that the startups will also get access to advisory services from Airtel’s executive team.
Some Startups under the Accelerator Program
The companies under the airtel startup accelerator program
Vahan
Vahan is a Bengaluru-based tech startup and the first company to come under this program. The telecom has brought 8.8% stakes of the tech startup and will partner with them to achieve their visions of enabling jobs for the next billion internet users with the help of AI based technology. The company was founded in 2016 and is backed by YCombination and Khosla Ventures.
The company is focused on finding blue collar jobs for millions of young Indians in Delivery, Driving, Retail, BFSI, BPO and Hospitality sectors with companies such as Zomato, Swiggy and Dunzo as clients.
Madhav Krishna, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vahan, in a statement said, “Most blue-collar job seekers are unaware of the opportunities that exist in the market, especially new-age on-demand jobs. Airtel’s distribution channels will help us reach the depths of the country and in turn, help them take control of their economic destiny.”
Vahan leverages advanced Artificial Intelligence to match job seekers with employers inside messaging apps such as Whatsapp.
Waybeo
Waybeo is a Trivandrum headquartered startup which focuses on deep AI based analytics for cloud telephony, is the fifth to join the fast growing Airtel Startup Accelerator Program, which helps promises startups unlock their potential. Airtel has chosen Waybeo to be a part of the program as it is part of its strategy to scale up its cloud offerings. As per IDC, the public cloud services market in India is likely to reach US$7.1 billion by 2024.
Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Airtel said: “Cloud technologies are transforming the way businesses serve and delight their customers. We are thrilled to onboard Waybeo to our Startup Accelerator program and provide them a platform to scale up their technologies as part of Airtel’s world-class cloud services ecosystem.”
Waybeo has managed to build a cutting edge analytics tools for the enterprises cloud telephony segment. Under the Airtel Stratup Accelerator program, Waybeo solutions will get larger distribution reach while giving Airtel access to waybeo proven as well as emerging technologies. Airtel serves over 2,500 large enterprises and more than a million emerging businesses with an integrated product portfolio, including Airtel cloud, a multi cloud product and solutions business.
The other company that came under the program was Voicezen, which is a Gurgaon-based startup that works on developing advanced solutions that leverage machine learning, AI, speech to text and voice technologies to offer real time analytics to help brands serve customers better. The global conversational AI market size is expected to grow from USD 4.2 billion in 2019 to USD 15.7 billion by 2024. The megatrend will be driven by surging demand for AI powered customer support services and Omni channel deployment.
Increased customer engagement through social media platforms and integration of advanced AI capabilities will offer massive opportunity. The investment will give Airtel preferred access to Voicezen’s technologies, which can be deployed across its customer touch points in multiple languages. These intelligent solutions will offer real time analytics and insights to make Airtel’s conversations with its customers more engaging and frictionless and enable faster resolution.
It will also allow Airtel to make contextual offers to customers based on real time conversations. Voicezen is the third startup to become a part of the Airtel startup accelerator program. By becoming a part of this program, Voicezen will get the opportunity to deploy its technologies on a massive scale and work closely with Airtel on developing India first platforms of the future. Voicezen helps brands deliver a better customer experience in Indian language using Conversational AI.
Apurba Nath, founder Voicezen said , “Having worked on AI solutions in the past, we knew what works well in a lab most often doesn’t work in the real world, because either the training data is not large and relevant or the problem has little business significance. Our partnership with Airtel helps us solve these challenges. With this strategic investment, we will work even more closely with them to continuously improve our AI models and build out an enterprise grade battle hardened product that will make customer interactions more efficient, especially in this post Covid world where business operations are facing large disruptions.”
Spectacom Global Pvt. Ltd
Airtel has also picked stake in Spectacom Global Pvt. Ltd which is a fitness focused startup, through its Airtel startup Accelerator Program. Airtel will work with the startup to increase the adoption of its services by leveraging its digital platforms, including Xstream and Wynk Music. Adarsh Nair said that, “This also fits into Airtel strong focus on connecting with the youth and providing them digital platforms to fulfill their aspirations”.
The Gurugram based Spectacom, set up by Adnan Adeeb and Zeba Zaidi, says it create digital content that allows consumers across geographies and languages to access health and fitness training initiatives and programs. The firm will also work to creating and promoting product lines such as training and nutrition videos along with live sporting events.
Lattu Kids
Foraying in the edtech sector, Bharti Airtel has acquired a 10% stake in Lattu Kids for as part of the Airtel Startup Accelerator Programme. The startup is Mumbai-based and was founded in 2017 by Vivek Lath, Vivek Bhutyani and Arvind Kumar. They offer learning and development content through streaming platform for kids between three to eight years of age.
Bhutyani, CEO of Lattu Kids, commenting on the investment by stating, “With Airtel, we have found an equally passionate partner and our synergies in this space will allow us to scale Lattu to millions of kids in India across classes and make it a much-loved homegrownn edtech brand.”
With the pandemic the edtech sector has seen a huge boost so this investment will pay off definitely. Airtel will be able to add edtech to its premium digital content portfolio and offer quality learning material compiled by the company.
Conclusion
With these investmet, Airtel will be able to capture a larger audience. They forayed into fitness, edtech, AI as well as blue collar job provider platforms. These startups will also be able to reach a wider audience and get mentorship from industry experts. Overall, it’s a win-win for all.
FAQs
How do Accelerator programs work?
Accelerator programs are mainly programs of limited-duration that help startups with the new venture process. They usually provide a small amount of seed capital, plus working space and mentorship help with their growth in the ecosystem.
What are the benefits of Airtel startup accelerator program?
The program will help early stage startups get access to Airtel’s online and offline distribution network, deep market understanding and ecosystem of global strategic partners. With the Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) becoming the next big thing in technology, the program has also developed strong in-house capacities for using these new age technologies. Moreover, the startups will also get access to advisory services form Airtel executive team.
What services does Airtel provide?
Some Airtel services include high speed 4G/4.5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1Gbps and converged digital TV solutions through the Airtel Xstream 4K hybrid box. It also has digital payments through Airtel Payments Bank as well as an integrated suite of services across connectivity, collaborations, cloud and security that serves over one million businesses. Airtel OTT services that includes Airtel Thanks appwhich is made for self-care, Airtel Xstream app for video, Wynk Music for entertainment and Airtel blue jeans for video conferencing.
Piyush Mishra
