Telegram remains a free messenger, with more than 500 million users all across the globe. It is also an alluring channel for advertisers. Some paid functions were announced in December 2020, and advertisements began to appear on channels with more than 1000 followers in October 2021.
Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, states that “Telegram became the most downloaded mobile app in the world in January 2021. For the last 7.5 years, Telegram has steadily climbed the rankings for popular apps. Since its launch in 2013, Telegram’s user base has grown over 40% each year.”
According to Telega.io exchange research, the Russian-speaking market capacity of Telegram channels touched $168.9M.
Did you know that 74.7% of total advertising traffic is allocated among the 10 most popular categories, which include “Business and Finance” (20.1%), “Women’s Section” (9%), “Mass Media” (7.9%), “Culture, Education and Arts” (6.1%), “Sports” (5.9%) and “Internet and Marketing” (5.9%)?
Daniel Zee, a visionary with Telega.io and the author of the free Telegram promotion video series, talked of introducing advertisements in the messenger. Besides, Pavel Dorov, the Telegram founder has publicly shared the plan to introduce ads on the platform in December 2020. News reported that the first advertisements appeared on Telegram during the first week of November 2021.
Why should you post your advertisements on Telegram?
Telegram paid promotion has been a rage ever since the launch of ads on Telegram. Advertising on Telegram is easy and the most important fact is that the Telegram promotion offers numerous advantages. These are:
Advertising transactions cost less
Find a targeted audience cheaper than Instagram and YouTube. You would get access to the same core target group that follows and trusts a blogger that they follow.
Native screen allocation and instant message format
Almost every Telegram subscriber is a reader. Marketing content is allocated naturally, and thanks to instant notifications, the message can’t be lost in the feed, which is something that you always have problems with on Facebook or Instagram.
A marketing message occupies 100% of the screen space in Telegram, unlike some decent, three-columned sites where it would occupy only 2%. Taking into account a relatively high CPM (Cost Per Mille, meaning cost per 1k of views), such posting conversion is also higher.
International market entering
According to App Annie study, Telegram is the most popular in India, followed by Indonesia, and Russia occupies third place. And after that, we have the USA, Malaysia, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Egypt, and UAE. IT entrepreneurs can now promote their products easier and faster, even in most winning markets.
How do I haggle, write a quality post, and measure efficiency? And what do I pay attention to when choosing a channel?
How to Pay for an Ad and Manage Paperwork?
Some Telegram channel owners are self-employed. And the majority prefer remittance: Paypal, Visa/MasterCard, etc.
If you deal with a channel admin, be sure to compare his username to the one in the channel description. They must match. If they don’t, it can be fraud, which happens rather often. Notice that in order to contact a true channel admin, you should follow a link in the channel description. Never search for it online.
Legal entities have a bit more trouble posting an ad in Telegram, as they need some confirmation papers. Here, the most convenient and easy way to get confirmation is to use the Ad Exchange services. They offer all the necessary papers to confirm each case.
How to Write Quality Post?
It is really important to adapt your content for the channel, and mostly people tend to overlook this part. However, there are admins who rewrite texts following their own unique style, but those aren’t common. In most cases, you should send text ready to post.
Here are a few pieces of advice regarding text editing:
– Create a clear call to action and introduce the link into the text or a button – Think post allocation through (eye-catching heading, bullets, paragraphs) – Make text useful, as it must not resemble an intrusive advertisement – Prepare some quality images – Don’t overuse emojis – Add some attractive offers (a promo code or some free stuff on subscription) – Be sure to remove previews in YouTube videos if you want to increase views – Make text more legible using allocation, italics, and/or listing – Apply software to proofread and finalize the text, as mistakes are irritating
How to Check Ad Efficiency?
Checking the advertisement efficiency is vital if you think that you should advertise on a media like Telegram. Here are some of the easy ways you can check Telegram ad efficiency:
In case you promote other channels
The core value here is the value of follower acquisition. You pay $50 and you get 25 users; that makes it $2 per subscriber (and it is cheap). There are no pricing standards here, as it depends on the channel, content, topic, and season. Test different channels, and over time, you will understand the cost of a subscriber in your topic.
In case you have a website or apps to advertise
Utilize UTM to view some business intelligence, such as the lead amount. However, transferring users from your main platform isn’t the best solution, and it is better to revert to Telegram.
Firstly, a site can be poorly optimized for mobile access. Secondly, redirection to another site often results in 90% traffic loss. People aren’t particularly happy to move somewhere, especially after receiving dozens of notifications and a message from Mom on top of that.
What is best?
Keep in mind that you can sell almost any services or goods via Telegram. A chatbot is a perfect tool for that. Conversion goes up immediately, and statistics provide you with advert feedback (the number of users who launched the bot and use it on a regular basis).
Telegram First. And this statement holds true for a brand new marketing campaign or a new company. You create a channel first and then a bot for it. Some mobile support sites and apps are to be launched later on when the company (or campaign) is a success.
You can then launch another channel, transfer all the landing data to it, and add a purchase button.
How to avoid the wastage of marketing funds?
You should test your content before posting. Choose 1–3 channels, publish it, and monitor the feedback (subscribers, purchases, clicks, and bot accessing).
Next, edit the text and try to purchase all the relevant channels. There aren’t many truly quality ones, and posting will still be cheaper than on various other sites.
If you are not bound by geography, try to purchase your Telegram topic in advance (six months ahead would be great). And neighboring niche purchases are to be stretched ahead for three months. Update your main niches once in 30 days and once in three months in neighboring ones.
What should those with limited funds do?
It is the same. Test your post, improve it, and purchase on the 2–3 best channels (pretest them too). Some online services or exchanges will help you compare sites and choose the best there is to offer.
A lower Telegram ad test funding limit is $1,000 ($2,000 would do better, though). It would enable you to purchase just enough posts to find out whether it is worth following a chosen strategy.
Use promo code Talky3 to get your 3% Telega.io Ad Exchange discount for: — a catalog of 750 pre-moderated, carefully chosen channels; — hot deals bot and discounts; — free channel analytics before posting; — thorough report, confirmation papers, remittance; — agency contacts including NDA and procurement conditions and terms.
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 Tinder.
In the days when the internet was unavailable, couples used to date traditionally, today which is known as offline dating. Nowadays people find it difficult to search for partners. Almost everyone needs the help of the internet to connect with their dear one or find a dear one online.
Tinder is a platform for online dating. It allows users to anonymously like and dislike profiles by swiping. The app showcases people’s profiles according to their bio, pictures and similar interests. Once the two users get ‘matched’ they can exchange messages. Read the Tinder success story below.
Tinder is an American online dating and geosocial networking application. It is considered to be the world’s most famous dating app enabling people to meet new people. It anonymously finds interested people close by who might like each other and helps both to get connected.
Smartphones gave online dating a new life. The founders thought that in the future mobiles will be used more than that of the computers because computers are just working devices which are going extinct soon. So, the founders created an opportunity and soon made a blueprint of a gamified dating app.
Sean and Justin crossed paths when both were at school in Los Angeles, California, USA. But soon after the story began when both met at the University of South California, 1st semester in 2004. Both were doing different jobs after their college got over. Both the friends wanted to do something of their own, something where two people could become friends with common interests. Jonathan, Dinesh and a few others joined and a complete team was created. Tinder came into existence. It was only for iOS users but after seeing the craze of the people android users were able to use it too.
Sean Rad, Justin Mateen, Jonathan Badeen are the main founders of the company Tinder.
Sean Rad is the founder of Tinder. Till 2016 he was the CEO of the company. In 2017 he was fired from the chairman position of the company. Prior to this, he was the President and the Founder of both Orgoo and Adly. He was born in 1986. Currently, he is a man of 34 years old.
Justin Mateen is an American entrepreneur. He is the Co-founder and CMO at Tinder. He is also a company advisor and an early-stage investor to a few of the innovative tech companies of the globe.
Jonathan Badeen is also a Co-Founder and the Chief Strategy Officer of Tinder. He was born in 1981 and he is currently a man of 39 years old.
Sean Rad, Justin Mateen and Jonathan Badeen (left to right), Founders, Tinder
Tinder – Tagline, Slogan and Logo
The tagline of the company is, ‘It’s like real life, but better‘.
Logo, Tinder
Tinder – Business Model
The business model of Tinder is very simple and effective. The founders have created a platform for the common people to date potential partners in an online mode safely and with affordable charges. All a user needs to do is swipe left and right, get matched, flirt and finally date. Here users need to log in with the help of their Facebook accounts.
The app helps the user to find local people with similar interests and eventually it allows the matched users to chat among themselves. Hence, matching is very important.
Tinder Plus allows users to find unlimited matches.
Users >28 = $19.99 per month
Users <28 = $9.99 per month
Tinder Gold provides users with a ‘Likes You’ feature along with all the Tinder Plus features. Prices here depend on various ages and locations.
Boost is a feature which makes the user’s profile the top profile of the area for around 30 minutes. It increases the chances of getting a swift match.
Tinder – Funding and Investors
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investor
October 10, 2017
Funding Round
–
–
October 28, 2014
Venture Round
–
Benchmark
April 11, 2014
Secondary Market
$50 million
IAC
Tinder is funded by 2 investors. Benchmark is the most recent investor.
Tinder – Growth
In 2019, Tinder ended up with around 6 million subscribers from 5.9 million subscribers. In 2020 Tinder saw 28% growth in subscribers and 31% growth in revenue.
Tinder – Competitors
The top competitors of the company are CMB, Zoosk and Badoo.
CMB is the top competitor of Tinder. It is headquartered at San Francisco, CA, USA and was founded in 2012. This company also works in the Application Software field.
Zoosk is perceived as one of the top competitors of Tinder. It is headquartered at Lehi, Utah and was founded in 2007. This company operates in the Application Software sector.
Badoo is also one of the top competitors of Tinder. It is headquartered at London, England and was founded in 2006. It works in the Application Software industry.
Tinder – Future Plans
The plan is to find more suitable partners for the customers. The company wants to help the users to find a better match. Tinder is willing to create more options in the platform so that the couples can spend more time with each other in a lightweight manner rather than simply texting.
At a time when having a conversation on lingerie was considered a taboo in India, Richa Kar, an Indian entrepreneur, developed an online lingerie shopping platform called “Zivame”. In 2017, Richa Kar resigned as the CEO of Zivame. However, she continues to be a member of the board. Read on for the success story of Richa Kar and Zivame.
Startups are all about solving a problem faced by the masses or enhancing an existing solution/mechanism. Richa Kar’s venture was inspired by a prevalent issue—women having to face embarrassment and unwanted attention for something as simple as buying lingerie from shops and stores. Lewd remarks from the opposite sex and harassment uncalled for leave women apprehensive about shopping for undergarments and other wear. Richa’s Zivame was conceived as a fix for this issue. Through her bold initiative, she was keen to ease the shopping experience for intimate clothing and succeeded at it. Zivame has now become a household name with girls and ladies—not just for its mind-boggling range of clothing, but also for the quality and durability it guarantees.
Richa Kar is the co-founder of Zivame. Richa and her husband, Kapil Karekar, started Zivame in 2011. The couple was introduced to each other through a mutual friend. Kapil is a corporate veteran with over 10 years experience in companies like Yahoo!, ESPN, and InMobi.
Richa Kar – About
Richa Kar – Founder of Zivame
Zivame co-founder Richa Kar was born in Jamshedpur and comes from a conventional family. After completing her studies, Richa worked in the IT sector for a few years. Post that, she pursued a Master’s degree from the renowned Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NSIMS) in 2007. She worked for Spencers and SAP retail consulting after graduating from NMIMS. Richa’s association with Spencers and SAP allowed her to gain valuable retail experience that helped her in her startup journey. One of her clients at SAP was related to Victoria’s Secret. Interactions and the experience of working with that client made Richa realize the harrowing reality of lingerie shopping in India. Richa pondered over the idea of an online retail store for the same.
Richa Kar – Education
Richa Kar completed her graduation from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) in 2002. In 2007, she finished her post-graduation studies from SVKM’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS).
Richa Kar borrowed INR 30 lakhs from friends and family to finance her endeavor. She started out in a small office space on August 25th, 2011, and received her first order 5 hours later. As the business grew, the company sought funding and raised $9 million in two rounds from investors such as IDG Ventures, Kalaari Capital, and Unilazer Ventures. Within three years of its launch, Zivame had grown to a 200 member strong team.
Zivame is an online lingerie store featuring hundreds of styles tailored for the Indian population. It is a leader in this niche online shopping segment, offering more than 5,000 styles, 50 brands, and 100 sizes. Moreover, Zivame offers a wide range of products for women in different categories that includes, but is not restricted to, lingerie and activewear. Zivame has seen such a tremendous reception that it now has brick-and-mortar stores across the country. Zivame’s products come at affordable rates without any compromise in quality.
Zivame at one point had 5 million visitors online every month out of which nearly 1 million were unique visitors. This number has grown multifold since then. Zivame’s consignments have reached all Indian states with the exception of Lakshadweep. With e-commerce becoming mainstream, Ziavme was quick to extract the maximum out of this domain by being amongst the early adopters. As time passed by, Richa Kar understood that jumping onto the e-commerce bandwagon was only the first step to success and becoming the leader in the lingerie category was more important.
For an unparalleled customer experience, a healthy inventory is essential and that in turn requires significant cash reserves. Zivame was right in scouting for funding early on. In its funding voyage, Richa met Vani Kola, the founder of Indo-US Venture Partners. Vani showed tremendous alacrity towards supporting Richa’s initiative. The first meeting between the two parties was a smooth sail with a strong relationship established by the end of the day.
Richa Kar is one of the most influential womenpreneurs in India today and is an inspiration for many. Kudos to you, Richa.
The 21st century is the century of startups and new rising companies. If you too want to start something of your own, something different and promising but don’t know how to put it up in front of the world in a legal way or you are too intimidated by the modus operandi here’s something for you that can help you start your venture of business and money-making.
Some Fundamentals of Registering your Business in India
Checklist for Business
Before going for the legal authentication part make sure you have done some profound research on the market you are going to step in, build a product that fits the demand of the people, and have an easy yet noteworthy name for your brand so that your registration process goes as smooth as it can be. You simply can’t build a business if you don’t have the exact idea of what you are going to present in front of the world. Make sure you are confident enough to start sailing in the ocean of marketing.
The Legal Way of Registration
Registering your business offline could be a complicated and greasy process. It is far better to do it online and it gives more transparency on how the systems work. Here are certain procedures that have been broken down into simple steps to help you register your business in India.
Visit the Website of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs
When you start the process of registration, first of all, you need to visit the government website of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). There you will need to find two forms, one of them is named DIR-3-KYC and the other as DSC (Digital Signature Certificate). You need to fill out these two forms first then apply for the DIN i.e. Director Identification Number.
Documents to be submitted
While filling out both of the forms you need to have certain documents handy as they have to be submitted along with both of the forms. These documents include proof of address, educational qualification, current occupation, passport. Along with all these documents you also need to send some passport size photographs.
After filling out these forms you will have to register for the Digital Signature Certificate, also known as DSC without which you won’t be able to apply for the company registration in the online mode. For this, you also need those same documents which include proof of address, educational qualifications, current occupation certificate, passport, and passport size photographs.
File an Application
Once you are done with the previously mentioned forms, prepare an application. In this part, you will have to fill up the 1A form electronically. This process officially performs the registration of the name that you want to give to your company. You cannot just give a name that you think is suitable for your business. Here you will have to send a list of at least four names out of which one will be selected by the RoC based on their availability and whether they are appropriate. It is normally better to give more than 5 names as you will have more chances for your application not to get denied.
The RoC (Registrar of Companies) might take up to 2 days to respond. In this process, you will have to pay a fee of Rs. 500. Once the RoC approves the name that you have provided, the registration of the company must be done within 6 months of approval. If not done within the period, the whole process of registration has to start all over again.
The last step of registration includes the drafting of the Memorandum of Associations (MoA) and the Articles of Association (AoA). As these are two legal forms, these need to be dealt with carefully where you might take help from Lawyers while filling out the forms. The MoA provides a list of the different agendas of the company while the AoA lists out the details of the Company’s operation and its management. Both the Documents need to be compulsorily signed and attested by a minimum of two people from the company with a person being the witness of the whole drafting process.
Draft MoA and AoA
After doing so these documents are to be sent to the RoC for the verification process. After the documents get approved by the authority, a print out must be taken out so that you can get them validated. Then you can attach these documents along with all other documents necessary for the registration of your business.
With all of the above documents attached, you can now apply for the registration of your company by submitting the documents to the RoC. You have to register your company in the state where you will be performing your business. Then you will be provided with a certificate of Incorporation from the RoC which is the legal Certificate that declares the business to be legal and to be your own. This means that your business is registered and you can simply start conducting your business.
After the successful registration of your new Business, there is another additional step that you must do before starting your business. You must apply for a GST number, which when registered will complete the whole process of your company’s registration.
This must have given you the basic idea of how to register your business in the smoothest way possible. Though there might be some extra procedures involved, depending on your location and the type of business you want to run, it is always better to get started as soon as you can.
Conclusion
Registering a business in India is not that complicated as it may feel. You just need to have some knowledge before getting down on the platform. The procedures set by the government for a successful registration is a quick and sorted process which makes it easy for a new company to start and run without much complications. After you are done with registering your business in India, it is now time to make it prominent and successful. There is one small piece of advice that you may need before you start your business venture is that no matter how challenging and exhausting the market makes you feel if you can make it better for the customers, you will surely succeed in your business. Keep your hopes high and your visions clear.
FAQs for Registering your business in India
How to register a foreign company in India?
A foreign company can establish its business in India by filling out the FC-1 e-form. A digital signature of the official representative is needed whiling filling out the form electronically. There is no need to apply and obtain the DIN for the Directors of the foreign company.
What is the objective of small business registration in India?
Regardless of the type of business you want to run, you will always have to register your business officially. The reason being that a certain business transaction must follow specific rules and guidelines for being legal in India. Registering the business declares the company to be yours, secures the name of your company, and gives you the authenticity to take any legal actions whenever necessary.
Can I get a registration number for my business?
On applying for registration you will be given a recognition number for your business. This number will be provided to you once there is complete verification of your documents.
How long does it take to start a business in India?
It normally takes two to three weeks to complete the registration process and you can start your business in India within a short span. After you are provided with a legal recognition certificate for your business, the Indian Director can help you with opening a bank account in the company name.
How to choose a company name?
It is better to search for a name that is simple, easy to pronounce, and is relevant to your business. You can always take help from the internet. The RoC may expect you to follow some naming guidelines while naming your company.
Choosing the right idea for a new business in 2021 can be difficult and confusing. This task needs to be done very carefully and one should keep in mind many things while choosing an idea for his/her new business. One of the most important things to keep in mind when selecting an idea for your new business is to choose something which is of interest. This point is very essential because if you choose something which does not attract you or isn’t of your interest, you might get tired of it after some time, and your business will come to an end. To help you with this confusion, we bring to you a list of business ideas for 2021.
Drop shipping is one of the most well known profitable business idea as is a type of online retail or e-commerce business in which the seller does not keep stocks of items. A drop shipper transfers orders placed on his/her website to another retailer, manufacturer of the product, or a wholesaler and they ship the order directly to the customer.
Dropshipping
Pros Of Dropshipping
You do not need to own an inventory of items. This makes the initial cost for starting the business almost negligible in comparison to opening an e-commerce store where you will require to build large inventories
You don’t have to worry about the products in inventories that people are not buying because you don’t have an inventory
It is very easy to set up a dropshipping store. Ebay and many companies allow you to start a dropshipping store with them with ease. You don’t have to know web development to create your own online store.
Cons of Dropshipping
There is very small margin of profit in the dropshipping business. You will compete with bigger and more competitive online stores due to which you will have to keep your profit margins low.
This field is highly competitive as I already mentioned. Therefore, you will have a hard time bringing your store to people’s attention.
This is the era of social media one of the most well know online business in India is Social Media Manager. Almost every brand is on social media which also constitutes a large part of their digital marketing. Therefore, companies need people/businesses to handle their social media accounts. You will be responsible to manage their social media, reply to comments and queries by customers, increase their presence and growth on social media by building attractive posts, and posting them on their account.
Digital marketing are also extremely profitable business venture, as they are always in demand by many companies to provide digital marketing solutions to their customers. This is the most essential marketing nowadays and everybody does it. Therefore, companies hire digital marketing companies to digitally market their products/services/business.
Pros of Digital Marketing
Every company uses digital marketing to market their products/services whether they are a small or big company.
There is no limit to what you can earn from the business as it is an ever-growing field
There are no boundaries for your business. You can provide digital marketing solutions to a company even if you are at the other end of the world.
Cons of Digital Marketing
It is very time-consuming.
You will have to keep updating your skills and techniques as this field is ever-changing.
Graphic Designing
If you have a graphic designing business, you create graphics, visual content, and other artwork for your clients.
Every company wants graphic designers to create content for them. You will easily get clients if your work is creative enough
Good work will attract many potential customers easily
It is a high paying business
Cons of Graphic Designing
You will have to constantly update your skills and techniques. Each company’s requirements are very much different from each other.
The field is a competitive one. Only if your work is good enough, you can stay in this field.
Web Development
A web development company develops and manages websites and for their clients. You will have to design and create good websites and/or web applications.
Website development process
Pros of Web Developing
You can work from home
You can show your creativity to the world and earn money doing it
Cons of Web Developing
Technology keeps on changing and if you want to remain at the top of your game, you need to constantly update your skills and techniques.
The job of creating a website before a deadline can mean long hours of continuous work.
Photography
There are many fields in photography that you can choose from such as stock photography, wedding photography, wildlife photography, etc. You can even have your own studio if you have enough resources. But remember one thing that you will become a successful photographer only if you love the work you are doing.
Pros of Being a Photographer
You get paid to do the thing you love. You do not have to compromise your passion or career if you can make them both same.
Freedom of work
Unlimited action and adventure, especially if you are a wildlife photographer
This is one of the most popular business ideas nowadays. The majority of the people today own a smartphone, which makes it essential for big companies to have a good mobile application for their business because people prefer apps because they are easy and convenient to use.
Mobile app development
Pros of Mobile App Development
Almost every company today tries to have a good mobile application for its customers, which is why you could grow your business rapidly if you are good at your work.
This business can be very profitable
Cons of Mobile App Development
Ever-changing technology will make it difficult for you to stay updated with the latest technology.
Once the development of an application starts, it can prove out to be very expensive and difficult to make even minor changes.
Another well known profitable business idea in India is Antique dealer as it includes buying and selling antique items. Some people are very interested in buying such antique items and some want to sell such items. You will work as a mediator between them.
Pros of Antique Dealing
You can get your hands on something very valuable at a low cost and earn huge revenues from it.
Cons of Antique Dealing
It looks easy to set up an antique store, but you will have to do a lot of work
You must be knowledgeable about the products you buy from people or may get fooled or scammed
Your business will take a long time to establish into a big business.
Bakery
Bakery shop are extremely popular business venture in India as youll find one on every corner. If you like to cook and prepare food items such as cakes and bread, this business will be very good for you.
Pros of Owning a Bakery
You can create good profits if you chose the location of your bakery wisely
You can even start at home
Cons of Owning a Bakery
Profit margins can be small especially in the beginning
There is a very large competition in this field
Ingredients are very costly, so you will need some investments to start out.
Event Planner
Event planning is now in the boom nowadays, as people prefer experts to plan their events may it be birthdays or weddings, making profitable business idea. As an event planner, you will organize and plan various events for your customers such as birthday parties and anniversaries. It will be your responsibility to organize events smoothly and that no one faces a problem. You will organize things such as caterers, locations, entertainment for the event.
Pros of being an Event Planner
No formal education is necessary for becoming an event planner
You’ll get to meet interesting people every day
You can showcase your creativity to people
Cons of being an event planner
It is stressful work to plan an event. It has also featured in a list of ‘7 most stressful jobs’.
Many times you can across people who are difficult to work with
Although no formal education is required for becoming an event planner, it still requires a great deal of experience to become a good and successful event planner.
Choosing an idea for a business will prove to be difficult, but you must do it carefully. These are some of the best business ideas for India in 2021. But, you can also go with any business idea you come up with. You should at least try it once and must not only think of profit at initial stages.
Frequently Asked Questions- FAQs
What are the best business ideas of 2021?
Social media marketing
Bakery
Event planner
Antique dealing
What are the most well known business ventures in India?
Mobile app development
Photography
Web development
Graphic designing
What are the most well known business ideas in India?
Technology has an impact on every industry. The recruitment industry has also been influenced by various technologies in past. The industry is experiencing rapid growth as a new players are entering the market. Technology has advanced at a ridiculous pace in the last ten years. Every company should be updated about upcoming tech trends in the market. As we near the end of 2020 lets look at some Top Tech Trends Every HR Must know in 2021.
Top 7 Tech Trends Every HR Must Look Out for in 2021
Artificial Intelligence in The Recruitment Process
HR tech trends in 2021
One of the most well known tech trend in HR is the use of Artificial intelligence which growing exponentially in every field from health to teaching to everything. In 2021, AI will play a major role in the recruitment and hiring process. AI can save the time of recruiters to screen and shortlist candidates. The recruitment process will also speed up with the help of AI as it can answer repetitive questions through a chatbot.
Every organization wants to improve workforce engagement. As an HR it is important to ensure that your employees are passionate about their jobs. Various feedback tools are available to improve the workplace environment and employee engagement tools for employees. There’s a lot of distractions in the modern workplace, especially for employees who use internet-connected devices to complete their daily tasks. These feedback tools will help management to better understand their employees. There are various Employee Engagement Software and Tools in 2021
On the Job Training
On the job training is an important top trends of HR that helps in the prosperous growth of the organization. Employees require continuous mentorship and skill development training to perform well in their jobs. On job training helps employees get business demands met more promptly. This also develops a great mindset of always learning in employees. Many companies have adopted Different Policies to Upskill the Employees.
Top HR trends of 2021
Employee Experience Platforms
There are various platforms available to rate companies on their Employee Experience. Employees don’t hesitate to share their experience on these platforms which can affect the company’s reputation. A positive employee experience makes it easier for companies to attract top talent in this competitive market. This generation is the largest part of the workforce and it is important to join millennials in your workforce.
Many organizations employ data analytics tools in human resources to improve hiring decisions. It can also help to identify factors that have the most significant influence on the employee. Employee data can be used to create a personalized experience to engage employees. Data analytics can be presented visually in graphics or statistical reports to better understand and take action.
Technology has advanced at a ridiculous pace in the last ten years. HR needs to identify the best workforce for their organization. The impact of technology has also enhanced the hiring experience for both the candidates and the hiring teams. Various tools and technologies are available for HR to facilitate the recruitment process.
Cloud based HR
The HR department is known to help key functions such as recruiting, managing the data of the employees managing the employees performance, hiring, etc. One thing they all have in common is data processing. Before the cloud based solutions like PeopleSoft, the HR managers would take care of all these details. Which is why with the introduction with cloud based HR solutions improving the process of hiring, getting an employer brand and updating information and data security.
Giving importance of the employees mental health
The mental health of the employees must be given importance because they are what make or break the company. For taking care of their wellbeing the HR department can hold a weekly office yoga session or a healthy Friday. Not only that the the physical, and financial health of the employees must also be given equal importance. And as such, the number one condition when it comes to getting your workforce ready for the future.
Frequently asked questions – FAQs
What do HR department do?
The HR takes care of the employer branding, recruitment or selection, Onboarding, performance management, learning and development and most importantly workplace safety and culture.
What does a HR manager do?
The HR manager has a lot of responsibilities such as managing their internal team, stakeholder management, making new policies for recruitment etc.
What does an HR analyst do?
The HR analyst works on the collection, analysis, and reporting of data.
Why is adding new tech trends important for the HR?
Adding new tech trends to the HR departments in improving the HR policies, growth of organisation helps in performing the basic functions of HR like recruiting, onboarding, training the employees, etc.
From its early days, Facebook has been one of the most popular social media websites on the web and continues to be so today with over 2.45 billion monthly active users. Owing to its robust and interactive layout Facebook has managed to amass the highest number of social media users and has about 1.62 billion daily active users. Although since the initial days of its conception, this number has only gone uphill, recent days have seen a decline in the charts. This can be attributed to the change in its layout, which has not been very well received by its users.
Every new design of a software or an application tends to improve on the previous version in both functionality and visual appeal; the new Facebook update however seems to have upset its users, with most of its user base longing for the older version.
The new layout of Facebook comes with an option of enabling dark mode, separate group tab interface, along with a Facebook Messenger for desktop, which does not require the users to go to their Facebook profile, instead simply access the same features available on the mobile version, through a desktop application. The 3-dimensional photo option allows users to publish immersive 3-dimensional photos through the portrait mode of the camera while the quiet mode allows the user to mute all the notifications, in an attempt to reduce screen-time.
Subtle Comparison Between Classic and New Facebook Version
There are a lot of differences between the classic layout of the Facebook page and the newer version. One such example is the ID numbers, which have somewhat different naming conventions in both versions, in case you want to find a specific profile through the source code. In the classic design, the profile, page, as well as location ID is named as entity id, while that in the new version profile ID is termed as user ID, page as page ID, and event as event ID.
Finding a previous post is also not so easy in the new version as it is in the classic version since the new version only offers to search by year, while the classic version allowed the users to sort and find posts not by the exact date, but by the month, making it a lot less tedious. In the classic design, you can find when an individual joined a group, simply by hovering over the post; furthermore, the classic version also allows you to view the calendar in case a particular group has come up with an event, while both of these options aren’t available in the updated version.
Although some features that the classic design offers are better and welcomed by users, man features of the new layout also stand out. One such example is the ‘Groups’ tab, in which the new design offers you more filters including a filter for the city. Moreover, you can find friends and followers in the new design with ease owing to an additional search bar as well as posts within a group, with the help of the ‘magnifying glass icon’ available. Also, the new design comes in handy when you wish to search posts pertaining to a given topic, owing to the search option within the profile; although searching in the classic version would be easier in case you wish to search between dates.
Regardless of all the new updates that Facebook has incorporated in its latest design, users are not quite satisfied and want to revert back to the previous version. On that note, here’s how to revert back to old Facebook 2020 interface. Here are some simple steps you can follow, if you are one of the people longing for the older version or Facebook old design, to go back to the version.
How to go back to classic Facebook?
Open Facebook on your desktop and click on the downward-facing arrow on the top right corner of the page.
From all the available options, select “Switch to Classic Facebook”.
Once clicked, Facebook will reload automatically, and revert to old Facebook ; and you can go back to scrolling posts in your preferred layout.
Facebook also offers to revert back to the newer version, if the older version doesn’t quite work with you and you prefer the new layout. All you will need to do is select the option that says, “Switch to new Facebook” from the downward-facing arrow on the top right corner. This allows you to go back to the new layout even after you have switched to the older version.This is how to switch to classic Facebook 2021. Hope it helps you out!
There has been an update which has removed this option but this video explains 2 other ways you can revert back to the old Fb.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to switch back to old Facebook layout 2020 or How do I get the old Facebook layout back?
Stepson the switch to classic design on Facebook:
First, click on the small white down triangle at the top right of the blue bar at the top.
Then choose the ‘Switch to Classic Facebook’ option to switch to oldFacebook.
Now, you will be asked to give feedback. The Classic Facebook will appear on your window.
If you don’t get that option and you are a group admin, then this option will show up in your group otherwise you can use this chrome extension.
What does the new Facebook look like?
Facebook’s new 2020 design features more white space and is easier to read on a desktop.
What does the Facebook Dark mode do?
Facebook has a secret “darkmode” that makes the app gentler on your eyes at night by changing all the white spaces to black.
It’s the age of insane confidence and risk-taking tendencies. And by that, I mean delving into the field of business. Referred to as startups in the premature stage. Everyone wants to found’ a startup today. Unfortunately, not everyone is successful. Here is a list of twenty Indian startups that shut down, and the reasons behind their failure.
Even unique startups in India, that have a good business model could not suffice as the funding failed up till 2021. So what’s the reason behind this? We are going to check out the list of Indian startups shut down for various different reasons. So one can learn from past examples before heading towards posterity. Below here is the list of Indian companies that shut down in India till 2021.
Bala Venkatachalam, Subhashini Subramaniam, Dev Vig
Launch
2014
One of the first failed startups in 2018 is Babyberry which is a parenting app and forum dedicated to helping new parents with the care and development of their newborn babies in all aspects, such as physical, mental, and emotional. The founders shut down the company citing that they would reopen after they had solved the technical glitches as reported by customers. Around $1 million was invested.
COINSECURE
Startup Name
Coinsecure
Headquarter
Bangalore
Founder
Mohit Kalra
Launch
2014
Another failed startup in India is Coinsecure one of the fastest and largest online bitcoin exchange platform in India. The company aimed to make their company by building a reputation for integrity and educating Indians about blockchain and bitcoin. Unfortunately, a hack in April 2018 led to the theft of BTC 438 amounting to $3.3 million leading to it being one of the shut down companies in India . Bankruptcy looms in the background unless the company recovers the money.
Contentmart was founded to provide a platform for content writers to put their skills to use. The nature of jobs was not restricted to blogging; any content related job was put up on the platform. They extinguished revenues ( which is the third reason behind the failure of startups) and also lacked a business model, which led to their shutting down in August 2018.
EBAY
Startup Name
Ebay
Headquarter
San Jose, California
Founder
Pierre Omidyar
Launch
2005
Ebay which is a popular online e-commerce platform that connects buyers and sellers. Their auction business model allows buyers to place bids. Although popular in the US, they faced heavy competition from Amazon and Flipkart. Also, the auction model wasn’t a welcome one leading to it becoming an unsuccessful startup in India. This led to their acquisition by Flipkart in 2018.
Ezytruk is a truck and logistics platform, aimed to connect manufacturers and transportation services, comparing service rates and charges as possible. The seed funding round raised almost one crore, but as the founders were unable to raise funds in subsequent rounds, making them incapable of scaling, leading to their shutdown in 2018.
HOLACHEF
Startup Name
Holachef
Headquarter
Mumbai
Founders
Anil Gelra, Gaurav Srivastava, Saurabh Saxena
Launch
2015
Holachef a famous failed startup in India, was a platform that connected chefs and customers in the city. According to menu specials, the company oversaw the preparation, packaging, and delivery of food. The arrival of Swiggy, Zomato, and FoodPanda led to a loss of interest from the investors’ side and a subsequent cash crunch.
JUSTBUYLIVE
justbuylive
Startup Name
Holachef
Headquarter
Mumbai
Founders
Bharat Balachandran, Sahil Saini
Launch
2015
JustBuyLive was founded with the aim of connecting retailers directly with brands. The retailers owned small and medium enterprises. What lead to the company getting closed is that it offered working capital to the retailers to get started. Even with massive funding of 700 crores, their faulty business model and negative cash flow contributed to their failure.
MonkeyBox was a lunch delivery service that provided vegetarian meals to school students. Their customer lists boast of nearly eighty-five schools and over 1500 students. Crossing two thousand subscribers, acquiring other food businesses were milestones. The reason for the shutdown is unclear, although the company cited ‘ being unable to achieve targets’ as the reason. They are one of companies that shut down in India but are however working on strategy and are hoping to resume services in the future.
MR.NEEDS
Startup Name
Mr.Needs
Headquarter
Noida
Founders
Hitashi Garg, Ravi Wadhwa, Ravi Verma, Yogesh Garg
Launch
2016
Mr.Needs is a grocery delivery service. It works on an online subscription model. It delivered around thirty-six thousand orders monthly. A founder declared that their delivery charges were at least half comparatively. Again, the reason for failure is unclear, but fierce competition in the field from BigBasket and others may have been the reason for their shutting down.
OFO
Startup Name
OFO
Headquarter
Bengaluru
Founder
Dai Wei
Launch
2017
OFO is a China-based bike rental company backed by the Alibaba group which launched its service in India. Despite the availability of huge market potential in India, the company withdrew its services in 2018. The reason given was that the growth rate of the company did not match that of other countries, and hence resources could be better spent elsewhere.
Shotang had a middlemen business model. It connected manufacturers, retailers, and distributors. As middlemen, commissions were its revenue. Unfortunately, fierce competition from Flipkart and amazon forced the company to shut down.
STAYZILLA
stayzilla
Startup Name
Stayzilla
Headquarter
Bengaluru
Founders
Yogendra Vasupal, Rupal Yogendra, Sachit Singhi
Launch
2005
This unsuccessful startup in India, Stayzilla was started out of the founders’ passion for traveling. They created a travel platform for travelers to stay in homestays and collaborated with almost 55000 properties. The reason they failed was that they burned cash in trying to create demand. Although they showed a remarkable growth rate, their aim to scale and rebrand resulted in high capital investments which did not match revenues earned.
TASKBOB
Startup Name
Taskbob
Headquarter
Bengaluru
Founders
Aseem Khare, Abhiroop Medhekar, Ajay Bhatt and Amit Chahalia
Launch
2014
Taskbob was a startup that aimed to provide home services to customers. The services can be anything- beauty to home repairs. While the idea was great and achieved targets, it was neither scalable nor profitable. A rise in margins saw a fall in the number of customers. Ultimately, they had to shutdown company in India.
Tapzo was an app aggregator- it brought together apps across all categories under a single roof. Despite having a huge user base- around fourteen thousand users, regular subscriptions, and solid investments, the startup was valued nearly at half the value of the previous round of investments. This led to the acquisition of Tapzo by Amazon Pay.
Tazzo is a bike rental company similar to the startup OFO discussed above. The startup’s app came with live GPS tracking and they charged around INR 5/km. A lack of funding in subsequent rounds owing to a lack of profitability led to its shutting down in two years.
WYDR
Startup Name
WYDR
Headquarter
Gurugram
Founders
Devesh Rai, Hitha Uchil, Varun Guru
Launch
2015
Wydr was an e-commerce platform selling a range of products to a range of buyers. They boasted of almost ten thousand manufacturers. Customization and price negotiation were key advantages. The investors consciously scaled-down the startup for three months before shutting it down and did not declare any reason for doing so. We can speculate that competition might have been a reason.
YUMIST
Startup Name
Yumist
Headquarter
Gurugram
Founders
Alok Jain, Abhimanyu Maheshwari
Launch
2014
The startup founded by a former Zomato official and a restauranteur served home-cooked food at affordable prices. Lack of funding was the main reason behind their failure.
Zebpay is another cryptocurrency exchange platform. At its peak, it has almost three million subscribers. A policy issued by the Reserve Bank of India, restricting payment companies to extend cryptocurrency services and a subsequent redressal hearing fixed after a year, left the cryptocurrency trading policies in limbo. Amidst the uncertain environment, the company decided to shut down.
Any entrepreneur knows that there is an element of risk involved with startups. The solid funding round does not guarantee continuous funding. The market is ever fluctuating. It is important to give your one hundred percent to every startup you work in or found because it is a learning process. Taking risks and exploring the unknowns will give you a world of exposure rather than sticking to your comfort zone for the sake of success.
Doodhwala
Startup Name
Doodhwala
Headquaters
Bengaluru
Founders
Aakash Agarwal and Ehbraham Ali Khan
Launch
2015
Doodhwala is a recently shut down company (2019) which was based in benagluru as a milk delivery. The startup worked on a subscription based model and offered various groceries products across categories. Doodhwala has raised over $4 million across multiple rounds from investors like Mumbai based VC firm Omnivore Partners. In October 2019, it was reported that Doodhwala had halted its delivery operations across three operational cities.
DocTalk
Startup Name
DocTalk
Headquartered
Mumbai
Founders
Krishna Chaitanya Aluru, Akshat Goenka and Vamsee Chamkura
Launch
2016
Another Mumbai based Healthtech startup DocTalk and enabled the patients to connect with doctors while also allowing to share medical reports and obtain prescriptions through its mobile app. According to media reports, this well funded healthcare startups failed to pivot its business model and could not achieve the acceleration it needed.
Nothing fails like a failure, isn’t it? And when a made-in-India technology succumbs to global competition, it hurts even more. But let’s not get emotional or philosophical about it because that’ll blur our perspective through which this case must be studied & analyzed.
In short, This Happened to Hike Messenger –
Hike shut down its messaging service, by shifting its focus to two new social products—Rush and Vibe. It was rebranded as Hike Sticker Chat with a sticker-centric experience in April 2019. (Know the detailed perspective in the article ahead!)
Is Hike Messenger an overnight success story that had to fail due to its own business, technical inadequacies? No.
Was Hike’s success a fluke, a marketing gimmick, a modern day fad that lost its appeal over time? No, it wasn’t.
Then did it give in to the pressures of business from its rival tech giants WhatsApp & WeChat? Most likely yes!
Having said that, we must know that it isn’t easy to list down top 5-10 reasons for the supposed failure of a well established, popular, financially sound co… especially in a demography like that of India. It is so big & so diverse that there could be multitude of explanations as to why a good business idea/model failed.
Let’s try & capture a Few reasons of Hike’s failure keeping this inherent truth in mind.
Lets find out! What actually happened to Hike Messenger?
Hike within a few months of its launch in Dec 2012 by Bharti Enterprises, caught user’s fancy (users which comprise mostly youth below age 30) almost immediately. Millions of users got on it, 70 M by the end of Oct 2015. WhatsApp was picking up slowly but surely in India at the time. India being a huge market, there was undoubtedly enough space & scope for another co. to succeed. Hike did just that. It kept adding millions of users month over month with addition of cool smart features like free unlimited SMS called Hike Offline, in-app news, cricket scores, personalized stickers store unlike any other app; and added many superior tech features over time such as Hike ID, Hike Wallet, Hike Direct, Hike Web (some of these outperformed WhatsApp) to enhance user experience while keeping user privacy & security intact.
So what went wrong? Why couldn’t it sustain its user base unlike its rival WhatApp? What was unique about WA? Was it just the fact that it captured the booming market of mobile phone users before tech cos. could even realize and anticipate the potential of more than 1 billion market? Probably yes. Let’s analyze further.
Hike was being hailed as the youngest startup in India to get a unicorn title, with a valuation of over 1 Billion within just 4 yrs of launch i.e. around Aug 2016. Hike was most certainly the best & biggest competitor of other widely popular Instant Messaging apps. Then came Jan 2016, when Hike revealed to press that Facebookblocked an option in its ads which allowed users to visit Hike website. FB gave no confirmation but it admitted that certain products & services can’t be advertised on its platform. Smart business decision you’d say but cutting out competition from a Co. born on the land you’re doing business in, puts the blame on the state’s unfavorable policies, inadequate regulations & not-so-friendly business environment yet, more than it does on the company. But all is not so grim, Indian startup community has begun to get its fair share of financial, policy boost.
On January 6, 2021, Hike informed its users that it will be shutting down its messenger and were given a deadline till January 14 to migrate their data.
11/ Finally → StickerChat by hike.
Millions of users spending 35 mins / day.
A very loyal user base that has been a fantastic launchpad for us to bring our innovations to the market → HikeMoji & HikeLand.
Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder of Hike Messenger did not clearly mention the reason behind this move but tweeted on Jan 10, 2021 about it vaguely as follows-
India won’t have its own messenger.
Global network effects are too strong (unless India bans Western companies)@telegram UX, Groups better than @signalapp
Both are very good. As entities they have the right incentives (more aligned with consumers) unlike FB products.
It is a fact though, given the dominance of American tech giants globally. There isn’t another China in the world, to refuse to bow down to USA’s shrewd business practices, as yet. Even Hike’s marketing team has to share the blame for its failure. Because while WhatsApp was growing leaps & bounds, why didn’t Hike get its fare share? Why wasn’t it as conspicuous & as much talked about as its rivals WA, Telegram or Signal etc? Why wasn’t there enough buzz around it?!
All in all, the fall of Hike is as remarkable as its rise. Needs detailed study, if the start-up scene in India has to improve.
Hike, the super app may have closed its flagship IM brand but it hasn’t gone out of business or ideas. It has split up into Vibe by Hike & Rush by Hike – its two next generation apps for its loyal user base. Vibe is a community based social media platform enabling friendship & dating over secure & verified platform. Rush is an online gaming app. Well, these apps will sure have takers but given the current market scenario which is flooded with such apps…Hike sure has to innovate to set its foot in the market even if doesn’t aim to beat Tinder or Nintendo.
Conclusion
Therefore, however deeply & multifariously you look into the reasons for a big Co’s success or failure, you are bound to miss an important development or phase that must have contributed to it.
Nevertheless, if you’ve an idea you trust, and willing to take risks, there are sea of changes taking place in every business / industry, especially in technology. India is on the road to development, and in the fast lane. Hence every innovation counts in bringing along the revolution that’s happening in digital space & beyond.
Last word – Failure sure hits hard like a rock, but if you use these very rocks & turn them into what they call ‘stepping stones’, you might meet success at the very next juncture. And a budding entrepreneur must always remember that there’s never a last opportunity, just a lost one!
Hike Messenger – FAQs
Hike App is from Which Country?
Hike is a messaging app originated in India. It is headquartered in Delhi.
Who is Hike Messenger Owner?
Kavin Bharti Mittal is the founder and CEO of Indian instant messaging app Hike, and also the son of business tycoon Bharti Mittal
What happened to Hike Messenger?
Hike Messenger is Officially Shut down and has been removed from Google Play Store and Apple App Store
When was Hike Messenger Launched?
Hike Messenger was launched in 2012.
What is Hike Messenger App?
Hike was essentially a cool messaging platform for chatting with funky and killer stickers that came in to innovate the messaging world
In 2019, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 35% of the total US workforce are gig workers, and the percentage will increase to 43% by 2020. India is also following a similar trend. As per ASSOCHAM reports, gig economy sector in India is projected to grow at a CAGR of 17% and is likely to be valued $455 billion by 2023. With the growing popularity of gig jobs among the youth, the number of gig workers is sure to be on a rise. Besides companies are also interested to hire gig workers owing to many advantages like low cost to the company and easy hiring process.
Bengaluru based startup, Awignis simplifying hiring of gig workers for the companies by taking care of everything from hiring and training the workers to supervising the work and getting the task accomplished.
Startuptalky interviewed Awign founders Annanya Sarthak, Gurpreet Singh and Praveen Sah to get more details about the startup and what it is doing to boost the gig economy sector in India
Awign was started with the mission of organizing & fulfilling enterprise work digitally with human aspirations & humanized efforts. Awign creates a bridge between companies & gig-workers by not only providing manpower to these enterprises but also taking the complete onus of finding the gig-workers, mapping them to the work, training them, managing them and getting quality outcomes for the enterprises. All enterprises have to do is give Awign their requirements, and the entire management is taken care of by the Awign team.
For the gig workers, Awign is not just a platform to find a job, but they also receive the required training and guidance to finish the work seamlessly, thus they not only earn, but get to learn as well.
“We are at a war against unemployment, underemployment and lack of skills.” quotes the Awign founders
Client Requirement: Client is onboarded and their requirements are captured on the platform (volume, quality, commercials, etc.)
Project configuration: Detailed execution workflows, parameters defining quality of work and workforce are fed in. This is captured on three different interfaces: app for the workforce, war room (Awign’s internal team) and client dashboard.
Publish: Listings of jobs, internships & gigs are published on the platform for gig workers to view & apply.
Skill Assessment: Each gig worker is assessed on required skills and trained as appropriate.
Task Allocation: The allocation engine ensures that every micro-task is assigned to an appropriate gig worker based on various parameters (proximity, availability and previous performance of the gig worker)
Fulfilment & Quality Control: Awign’s fulfilment team uses the war-room and ensures on-ground performance in real time.
Client Dashboard: Clients get full visibility of everything happening on the ground across multiple cities, on their screens. The dashboard also lays down all the insights generated from the ground enabling clients in decision making.
Awign – Services
Awign is a industry agnostic platform and provides manpower for almost every sector. However, the focus has been on FMCG, BFSI, ECommerce, Consumer Durable, Mobility, Assessment, Retail, Hospitality, Retail and Construction. Some of the services being provided by Awign are –
Verification Services: Awign helps clients verify their customers, partners, employees, and assets periodically. They by providing background verification, identity verification, geo-tagging and document collection. They work with Instaveritas, Authbridge, IDfy, BetterPlace, TataCapital, IndiaLends, etc in this regard. Awign is clocking a speed of over 1 lac verification a month across 450+ cities.
Audit: Awign does it by providing services such as mystery/non-mystery audits and surveys ranging across quality, revenue leakage, SOPs, customer experience, branding, market execution, etc. A few of the audit engagements include Revenue Leakage Audits for OYO, Stock and Visibility Audits for ITC Ltd., Competitive Benchmarking for Swiggy, etc. Till now Awign has audited 50k+ entities spanning across multiple use cases and industries.
New Business Development: This is an offering driven towards growth and market expansion for the clients. Awign does both demand acquisition as well as supply acquisition through the gigworkforce. They are helping teams at PharmEasy, Medlife, Amazon Pay, Khatabook, etc. to acquire demand and companies like Ultratech, Uber, etc. have partnered with Awign to acquire supply. The Business Development teams have been getting 25k+ new customers every month through Awign’s partnership
High Volume Calling: Awign can set-up a virtual call center to place telephonic calls to the client’s specific target audience to either pass vital information or collect certain data points. They’ve been helping teams to reach their audience at scale at Udaan, ZestMoney, Cred, etc. and have built capacities to place and handle 2 lac+ calls per day with a set-up time of less than 48 hours.
Digital gigs: Awign takes up high volume data/image/voice labelling, transcription and digitization assignments like content creation and executes this through a crowdsourced workforce with human augmented quality checks at scale. A few such engagements include – real time menu digitization for Swiggy and Zomato; training data creation for AI based bot for Policybazaar and Accenture. Capacity to process 10 million+ data points every month.
Last-Mile Delivery: These are the latest addition to Awign’s repertoire of service lines where Awign is leveraging the hyperlocal workforce, in-house tech platform and central team expertise to help clients to fulfill last-mile deliveries to their customers & end users. They are working with BigBasket, Licious, Supr Daily, etc.for these services.
Awign Covid-19 Compliance Platform (ACCP): Innovating amid the COVID-19 crisis when businesses are going operational, this mobile app-based platform helps thousands of people comply with the norms and protocols as per the government of India, to avoid further spread of coronavirus and maintain a safe work environment.
Praveen Sah is the Chief Technology Officer of Awign and leads the product & technology division .
Awign has a team of 150 employees, and it provides its employees a fast-paced challenging work environment where they can learn continuously and solve problem through collaboration. When it comes to hiring, people with an entrepreneurial mindset, and who those are passionate about learning and solving problems are preferred.
“The 150 Awignites are ardent believers of the fact that the next 500 million jobs in the country will rather come from the gig-economy as against the old, usual. However, technology plays a big role in driving this dream, and that precisely is what we are doing at Awign! ” the Awign founders quote.
The Idea Behind Starting Awign
Awign founder and CEO Mr. Annaya Sarthak, ex-IIT & a mechanical engineer by qualification landed a job in a big MNC. Working there, he didn’t find the perfect fit with respect to his dreams or work. He continued appearing for close to 9 interviews only to be rejected. There was something missing – knowledge and learning!
Here started the second round of academic learning – many online courses in operations, finance & HR ensuring that there is a boost in his knowledge. He now moved into a high-paying job as management consultant in a reputed firm. This is where the practical learning began; rigorous work, understanding the clients & market knowledge led to a revelation. This revelation sparked the idea of Awign!
Sarthak understood a common problem statement of most companies – whether to outsource something or not! However, outsourcing didn’t get them the best results. Companies don’t want to make risky upfront investment in permanent workforce! This was a large problem existing in the market.
Second part of the idea came when he was trying to build a Learning Management System for schools & colleges. His interactions with recent graduates and students pursuing college brought in the second revelations that this segment of people is looking out for opportunities to work, learn & earn. Here comes the idea of a bridge between what enterprises want to get done and what people in India can do or want to do. Towards the end of 2015, the concept of Awign was born. In a nutshell, the inspiration was the problem statements – with the enterprises and people.
Come early 2016 and he began ideating on building a team. First step here was to move to Bangalore from Delhi and meet Gurpreet Singh – the co-founder of Awign, ex- IIT and a computer science engineer by qualification. Their association goes back to IIT where they had a couple of not-so-successful stints together along with having a music band!
Gurpreet did land a very good job yet coming from a business background, he wanted to pursue his MBA and build something ground-up on his own, just like his father. Sitting on top of the GMAT score list, he had the opportunity to apply to the top 10 global business schools. Sarthak pitched the idea of starting a company together based on his idea and understanding of the market, client and the student. Gurpreet was convinced by the idea and found a calling in this!
There was a strong uncertainty but that’s where the second founder of Awign joins in – two of them together took a plunge of faith and risked it all.
They started working on the Proof of Concepts (POC), pitched this to a few companies and bagged the initial customers. The pitch was to give Awign a contract and pay only once the outcomes were delivered. Gurpreet and Sarthak together worked on everything right from the sales pitch to the clients, getting requirements, finding gig-workers, training, managing and getting the gig-workers working. This went flawless; the clients were happy, the gig-workers were happy but managing hundreds of gig-workers taught them that they need a technology platform to manage and scale it up!
Then joined the third member on board – Praveen Sah, the Chief Technology Officer of Awign Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., again an ex-IIT, ex-Flipkart, ex-Ola and a computer science engineer by qualification. Praveen held the experience of starting and managing his own startup for a year in Mumbai which unfortunately didn’t go well for too long and he was with Ola in their tech team soon after.
Sarthak and Gurpreet pitched to Praveen using their success so far, the POC, happy clients & gig-workers and the dream! Being the sole earner in the family, it was a difficult step for Praveen yet, he too took the leap of faith and by mid-2016 the big three were already working together to live their dream and make it bigger.
It wasn’t an easy journey. The money was flowing in from the founders’ personal savings which was soon over. The hardship was to an extent that Sarthak had to figure out an accommodation without rent for two months, a PG room became the first office but as they say, the fruit of hard work is always sweet, Awign now has touched 450+ cities, completed more than 5 million tasks and offered livelihood opportunities to 5lakh+ people and this continues to grow!
Locations in which Awign offers services
Awign – Name, Meaning & Logo
Awign is a Sanskrit word, which means “Removal of obstacles” and the logo signifies the same.
Awign Logo
Awign – Business Model
Awign’s business model is based on billing the enterprises, basis the outcomes on the ground, not on the manpower. Again it does not charge anything from the gig-workers on the platform. Thus Awign creates a win-win situation for both the enterprises (employers) and gig workers (Employees).
“We firmly believe that the jobseekers/workers shouldn’t pay for getting a job; instead the company must invest in them, give them the right tools to get trained & work on the ground and they get paid for it. End of the day, it should be about helping them earn a livelihood and learn – their skill upliftment must happen! ” The Awign founders said.
Towards the end of 2016, the founders started working on the angel round and rose close to INR 1cr. The funding led the founders to start building and developing the minimum viable product – the product journey had now begun full-fledged!
Awign was started with the idea of working with a supply pool of college students – primarily a group that has some level of education, studying in colleges in any stream, degree, etc. and are looking for avenues of learning & earning. This group can lead to great networking and virality.
Thus the Awign team figured out a strategy – Campus Ambassadors in colleges. This helped Awign with tremendous organic growth since there wasn’t much money to put in. The team spoke with placement in-charges and got the available tasks broadcasted on bulletin boards; a referral scheme also came into place and this resulted in a spike of students interested to take up tasks which helped them learn & earn that too without paying anything initially! This marketing channel works for Awign till date!
In the demand side, Awign reached out to enterprises to take up any large scale requirement at distributed locations and that required huge people engagement/involvement. With a plethora of use cases the Awign team identified the top focused verticals and industries and followed a very focused approach and reached out to specific titles/people in organizations who would require Awign’s services. Lately, a majority of customers come in through in-bound and referrals due to the high quality work developed by Awign.
Focus was also on hiring the right people for marketing. Nihal Chaudhary – Director of Supply – Brand & Product Strategy brought with him a rich experience of working with the youth, fresh out of college and even students. Due to his Edtech background with Avanti (an Edtech Company that prepares students for competitive exams) he built concrete channels of marketing and retention which changed the game of scaling for Awign.
Awign built a lot of processes in B2b sales with the ‘hunting and farming’ mechanism. With the help of a lot of advisors Gurpreet built a structure of ‘hunting & farming’ and this helped the startup cut-through thousands smoothly.
The initial idea was to select suitable workers for tasks and work fulfillment. But slowly team Awign realized that there was a challenge: to bring out quality work and standing true to the SLAs. To overcome this, they invested massively on the product to get the gig-workers work-ready. The technology helped reduce the training time from 8 days to less than 24 hours and make gig-workers work ready. Mudit Arora – Head of Operation, ex-IIT, ex-Schlumberger and ex-Grofers, led the fulfillment part of Awign and ensured quality outcomes.
Awign – Advisors & Mentors
Pankaj Banal (Founder- PeopleStrong) and Rohit Bhatiani (Ex-director – Deloitte) are the advisors on board.
Awign – Awards
Recognized as one of the Top 25 Startups for 2020 by Entrepreneur.com
Awign – Growth & Future Plans
Awign is operational in 450+ cities in India. Since 2018, Awign executed more than 5 million tasks and are the largest work fulfillment platform in the Indian gig-economy sector. The startup is operationally profitable and has grown 20X in the last two years. Some top clients and partners of Awign include Britannia, ITC, OYO, Swiggy, Zomato, BigBasket, Betterplace, etc.
With its trained pool of gig workers and its performance focused business model, Awign aims at becoming a $100 million company in terms of top line in the next four years. Through Awign, the founders envision to nurture the world of work & making it happier
“As of May 2020, India was standing at a whopping 29% unemployment rate with millions of people losing jobs due to the downspiralling economy or reverse migration of workers due to COVID-19. Even as the percentage of unemployment is getting better through June and July, underemployment still lingers on. Mint says that if the COVID-19 recovery of India stretches beyond October 2020, India will go into a possible loss of 20 million jobs; while 136 million non-agricultural jobs are at risk as per National Sample Survey (NSS). Speaking of underemployment or about daily wagers, even during good days, a daily wager earns INR 178/day which might interfere with the basic requirements of livelihood, says Trading Economics. Apart from the scarcity of jobs, people are still not job ready or come with a lack of skills for a particular job which adds on to the challenge of unemployment and underemployment in the country. This is the challenge that Awign aims at addressing” the founders said explaining the difference they intend to bring through Awign.
Awign – FAQs
Who founded Awign?
IIT alumni Annanya Sarthak, Gurpreet Singh and Praveen Sah are the founders of Awign.
What is the meaning of ‘Awign’?
Awign is a Sanskrit word, which means “Removal of obstacles” . It is a Bengaluru based startup, that is simplifying hiring of gig workers for the companies by taking care of everything form hiring and training the workers to supervising the work and getting the task accomplished.
