Endorsements are a type of advertising that employs well-known personalities or celebrities who have a high level of public recognition, credibility, regard, or understanding. Such people act like spokesperson who promotes a product or service and confirms the claim and stance of the brand by using their names or photos to promote it.
The more well-known an endorser is, the more expensive it might be to use that individual to promote a product but this investment could give them benefits worth millions and billions.
Celebrities govern the sphere of marketing and advertisement in the present era because celebrity endorsements assist make a business’s products or services memorable and relevant owing to having a well-known figure associated with the brand. Celebrities aid in telling a brand’s story and keeping you interested.
These motions assist marketers in connecting with their target audience and achieving the overall goal of generating purchasing behaviour. Numerous studies show that celebrities have perceived competence and credibility, and it is clear that marketers prefer celebrities since customers pay attention because they want to be like them and live their lifestyles.
Like every other industry, the tech industry has also understood this strategy of advertisement and have started featuring celebs to promote their brand to a maximum audience. One thing that has been understood is that if they have to connect with their target customer then they have to make someone their brand ambassador who is having a relevant root or past with the kind of product they are selling.
There should be a connection that make the viewers glued to the screen when they saw the celeb promoting any particular brand. It should not be like this that a celeb known for having baldness for ages is promoting a hair growing shampoo or oil. So, any tech brand endorsement should be done by a celebrity who is kind of tech-savvy and if we think about celebrities who fit completely or much for this role, we come through a few names in which some we are going to mention in detail as who they are and why they should be considered as best. These are the best celebrity for tech brand endorsement according to us.
Top 4 Tech-Savvy Celebrities for Tech Endorsements
1. Robert John Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr
This guy needs no introduction, as we all must have seen almost his every film and know him as Ironman but for those who are having no idea who he is and why we have named him at the top of our list, let me tell you that he is a producer and actor from the United States. In his youth, his career was marked by critical and popular success. He is one of the topmost paying actors in Hollywood.
He has a huge crush on the field of technology, it must be the reason behind his iconic act in the sci-fi movies he has done which gave viewers overwhelmed feeling of believing what we are seeing is connectable.
Robert has been featured in many ads and has promoted it through his tech-savvy knowledge and selling skills. He has been the face of OnePlus phones. While he isn’t a coding genius like Stark or a superhero like Iron Man, Downey isn’t a slacker when it comes to technology.
He had started Downey Ventures which was founded in 2011 with the intention of becoming an angel investor in tech-related startups and consumer entertainment enterprises. He’s also the guy who wants to use artificial intelligence and robotics to save the planet. He quickly added that he doesn’t know everything, but he’s prepared to do whatever it takes to make the world a better place.
Many people nowadays join his name with Elon Musk and say that he resembles him in reel life but what all intentions he has having for a brighter age of technology makes him iconic in real life too
2. Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres
Not many of you would have guessed how tech-savvy Ellen DeGeneres, the most confident and witty lady on the syndicated television talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, is. She likes her Bose headphones and little quick cameras, but her passion for technology isn’t confined to shopping. DeGeneres is an investor in Stamped, an app that allows users to review and track all of their favourite things.
She also has her own firm, Ellen Digital Ventures, which she co-founded with Warner Bros. and has already released two games, “Psych!” and “Heads Up!” She knows how to make the most of the tech industry. She is an inspiration for many.
3. Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars is a world-renowned singer and is well-known for his stage presentations, his showmanship, and his ability to perform in a variety of musical styles such as pop, R&B, funk, soul, reggae, disco, and rock.
Bruno Mars has been making some sensible business decisions when he isn’t releasing iconic music covers. The Grammy-winning singer was an early investor in the music business Chromatik in 2012. Chromatik creates digital sheet music for the web as well as the iPad.
Not a bad investment for a musician like him. As if that wasn’t enough, Bruno decided to become green by supporting the NJOY electronic cigarette firm. In an interview, he said that – “These days, I’ve started using NJOY Kings instead of cigarettes, and I’m sticking to it,” Mars added. “I believe in the product and the mission of the firm.” He is not only investing in the idea but also promoting it in a way that is conveying in a superb way.
4. Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Last but not least or should say the most lovable and one of the most well-known players in the industry of acting is also a full-time startup counsellor to one of the market’s most popular social mobile sites. Leonardo DiCaprio is an early investor in Mobli, a photo-sharing site that competes with Instagram and Viddy.
DiCaprio invested $4 million in the startup in 2011. This contribution aided not only technology development but also marketing and public relations. His presence has also drawn a large number of celebrity figures to the site, which is fantastic – especially for a social media hub.
Zoho is a very successful, award-winning, cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, provider. It’s also the trustworthy tech firm behind a long list of more than 40 commonly used web applications. These include project management, invoice applications, wikis, note-taking, databases, spreadsheets, reports, and word handling.
In this article, a review of the 6 most successful products of Zoho is done to help you determine whether they’re something you should consider for your company or not. This article will contain all the key advantages and explanations regarding how to boost the efficiency of your staff, increase your profits and enhance your work processes.
Founded in the year 1996, the Headquarter of the company is in Pleasanton, CA with branches in New Jersey, Beijing, Austin, London, and Tokyo. Zoho’s research and development software centres also operate in Chennai and Tenkasi in India, as well as Singapore and Beijing.
Top Zoho Product Reviews
A review of the 6 most successful Zoho Products is done to help you determine whether they’re something you should consider for your company or not.
1. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM Homepage
Zoho CRM covers the entire lifecycle of customer relations from lead generation to service and back. Zoho CRM is feasible to small as well as large enterprises that need cross-departmental CRM including support for marketing, sales, service, and tech.
Zoho CRM Key Features:
Automation of sales to screen leads and fast track deals like cross-sells up-sells.
Marketing automation to manage lead generation campaigns and to calculate results.
Cases and approaches to streamline sales/helpdesk service processes.
Inventory management to track goods and services pre and post-sales.
Zoho CRM Pricing Plan:
Zoho CRM Pricing
Zoho CRM Technical Details:
Supported Device: Android, Windows, iPad/iPhone, Mac, Web-based, Linux
Type of Customers: Small, Medium, Large scale Businesses, Freelancers
2. Zoho People
Zoho People is an intelligent, user-friendly HR software application that belongs to a complete Zoho suite for small business solutions. This famous HR management platform provides SMBs with a full suite of business applications and tools.
Moreover, it is a versatile and user-friendly tool that can be implemented out of the box immediately. This online Software is designed to control the entire range of HR processes within an organization. This will help to ensure that the potential of your employees is maximized. It is also ideal for companies searching for an HR platform that can be easily implemented without needing any further configuration.
Type of Customers: Small, Medium, Large scale Businesses, Freelancers
3. Zoho Books
Zoho Books Homepage
Zoho Books is an online accounting tool for handling every company’s financial aspects. This can manage invoices, bills, inventory, banking, and even perform mobile accounting effectively. The interactive accounting software aims to help small business owners better manage their finances. The application is user-friendly and allows businesses to easily create and send online financial forms designed by professionals.
Zoho Books Key Features:
Machined workflows.
Tracking and managing projects.
Integration stripe for faster reconciliation.
Runs on every computer and operating system.
Operates in more than 10 languages including German, English, and Japanese.
Type of Customers: Small, Medium, Large scale Businesses, Freelancers
4. Zoho Invoice
Zoho Invoice Homepage
A web-based invoicing software, this app is perfect for both freelancers and small businesses who want customers to project a more professional image. Zoho Invoice allows them to create their customized invoices, or to use templates for quick invoicing. The software would also be useful for companies with foreign clients or who bill by the hour.
Zoho Invoice Key Features:
Multilingual language functioning (up to 10 languages).
Connect to the gateway portal for payment or accept credit cards.
Tracking time for by-the-hour billing.
Role-based access that lets staff record their working hours.
Self-service portal which enables clients to view transactions and account statements.
Type of Customers: Small, Medium, Large scale Businesses, Freelancers
5. Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects Homepage
Zoho Projects is a customizable project and collaboration system that includes documents, calendars, tasks, and meetings management modules. The software is further expandable with add-on features such as wiki, time tracking, chat, and bug tracking for both small and large projects.
Type of Customers: Small, Medium, Large scale Businesses, Freelancers
6. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk Homepage
It’s a cloud recruiting app that helps to quickly track new talent from sourcing to hiring. Zoho Recruit is the main convenience of placing communication, documentation, and collaboration tools in one hiring platform. It substantially streamlines the entire recruiting process from publishing work items to handling resumes and shortlisting of eligible candidates to onboard hiring and recruitment.
Type of Customers: Small, Medium, Large scale Businesses, Freelancers
Conclusion
The above review is of the 6 most successful of Zoho’s creative product offerings for apps today. Essentially all of these 6 business applications in Zoho have similar elements but are distinguished by certain specific features and specifications.
For starters, they’re all integrated solutions — meaning they can all work with each other, but they do work as stand-alone apps. Each Zoho product from Zoho People to Zoho CRM — is also known for its ease of use and comprehensive integration with other Zoho products as well as third-party applications.
Also, every Zoho application offers intelligent automation to simplify even the most complicated daily activity.
Finally, these technological systems were gradually changing how we function, mostly for the better. Each Zoho product is likewise effective and efficient in solving business problems.
FAQ
What is Zoho famous for?
Zoho is famous for its online office suite and CRM software.
In an era, where everything is available at the click of a button it is no surprise that even a specialist doctor or a clinical examination could be done online. Online doctor consultation is a coveted field in India and is able to offer services like telehealth, telemedicine, telecare, and digital health care services. According to the survey conducted by Accenture in 2017, over 70% of the consumers are willing to experience health care services virtually, while 20% have already experienced virtual healthcare.
Many startup companies are looking to make it in the industry as it is currently rising. The consumer’s expectations for a convenient healthcare system are evolving while the healthcare industry is continuously striving to meet people’s needs with the help of technology. The telemedicine market in India is expected to reach $5.4 Billion by 2025 with a CAGR of 31%.
The online doctor consultation allows the dissemination of specialized knowledge among the medical community through advanced networks, reviews, emergency medical consultations during an epidemic or crisis among others. According to a report by Practo, online doctor consultations have increased 500% since March 2020, as five crore Indians are now accessing healthcare online amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Telemedicine Industry is expected to create more than $5.4 billion market opportunities by 2025. Practo, DocPrime, mFine, CallHealth, and Lybrate are some of the leading startups in India’s telemedicine market. The COVID 19 outbreak has created many challenges in traditional healthcare systems, as citizens have not been able to consult with the doctors physically.
This situation has led the government to change the regulations around remote delivery of healthcare services and allow telemedicine via video, audio, or text. Telemedicine will not only help these startups address the spread of Coronavirus but also improve access to healthcare in rural areas. Innovative technologies are allowing health organizations to enhance access and reduce the burden on hospitals through real-time consultation with doctors through online services.
top doctor consultation sites in India
Telemedicine will reduce the time of consultations and improve the quality of healthcare services in rural areas, removing many infrastructural challenges. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends every country to have a ratio of 1:1000 doctor to patient ratio, India only has one governmental doctor for every 1,139 people.
According to a report, India has a shortage of 600 thousand doctors and 2 million nurses. This leads to limited face-to-face consultations among patients. Secondly, India also has a shortage of hospital beds, which makes hospitalization difficult and there needs to be better infrastructure and facilities whereas with the help of online consultations the healthcare sector can reduce its problems.
Online consultation has become popular in India because it is easier and safer to access healthcare via call, video, chat with doctors, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The health ministry has urged people to take advantage of telemedicine services during the lockdown. And since then the usage of online consultation apps and medicine delivery services has been on the rise.
The pandemic has encouraged people to use the platform and consult a certified medical practitioner rather than resorting to self-medication. Online consultations are known for specialties such as Gynecology and Dermatology, while other specialties like mental health, pediatrics, ENT, ophthalmology, and gastroenterology are all well-known departments.
The growth of telemedicine in India
The telemedicine sector is steadily increasing not only across metropolitan cities but also in smaller cities like Hoshiarpur, Karnal, and Durgapur. The online doctor consultation platform mFine is seeing demand from states which has a low doctor-to-patient ratio since lockdown. The app has also seen new user signups and consultations from users in states such as Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh where the doctor-patient ratio is the lowest in the country.
Many other healthcare startups are seeing an unprecedented surge in demand as they shift healthcare delivery onto the internet, promote telemedicine, encourage online medicine bookings and use chatbots to answer patient queries. The support rendered by the national and state governments, their subsidiary concerns, and allies such as the ISRO have contributed a great deal to facilitate the development of telemedicine as a well-recognized field.
India has seen a tremendous increase in demand for telemedicine for healthcare services. According to Statista, the industry might have touched $280 billion by the end of 2020. Though the healthcare sector is seeing a giant leap in providing services to consumers, it has still not been able to expand its market in rural areas. Around 75% of the rural population is struggling with insufficient infrastructure and technological awareness. This is the reason why online consultation might help overcome this issue.
Bringing quality healthcare services to the rural areas of the country.
Benefits the people of rural areas in bringing down the disparity in healthcare offerings between the rural and urban areas.
Provides access to qualified healthcare providers, specialized consultation, accurate prognosis, timely diagnosis, and effective course of treatment.
The people of urban areas, who have access to world-class hospitals and treatment facilities but don’t have the time can seek help by online consultations.
The patients can have real-time interactions through video conferencing solutions, or store and forward models which can capture patient and disease-related information through dictation, photos, videos, radiology, etc.
The patients can get the benefits of an actual visit to the doctor without having to do so.
Not just consultation and treatment, but many other services can be fulfilled through telemedicine, which brings together the best of both worlds – medicine and telecommunication.
It helps in the dissemination of specialized knowledge among the medical community through advanced technology and peer-to-peer reviews.
It’s very useful for emergency medical consultations in times of an epidemic or crisis.
How to provide a great online consultation experience
Target Audience of Telemedicine Industry
People who are willing to try telemedicine.
Application developers and network operators.
Third-party suppliers and healthcare service providers.
With the growing attention for telemedicine services, countries around the world are developing a regulatory framework for the industry. While India is already one of the top 10 countries in telemedicine marketing the world, the adoption of a regulatory framework will help the segment grow rapidly.
Tattvan Mishra, founder, and CEO of Tattvan E-Clinics said that “India has seen considerable growth in the telemedicine sector however, the growth was not rapid due to the lack of proper guidelines and regulations. In the coming years, I expect a high investment from the private sector in the field of telemedicine. I think the telemedicine industry has a bright future and may become a multi-billion industry in the next 3-5 years.”
Online consultation platforms have supported the healthcare needs of Indians at a time of lockdown. Saurabh Arora, the founder and CEO of Lybrate in a press statement said that “It is the need of the hour to contain the spread of the virus. The healthcare burden on the country is gigantic around this time and platforms like ours can definitely help share it. People can consult doctors on Lybrate across specialties and so on other platforms, letting hospitals tend to more serious patients”.
Besides telemedicine, other health-tech segments such as online pharmacy, medical technology, and medical devices have also called for increased regulatory clarity so that startups can focus on the model rather than tweaking their operations. When it comes to the online consultation market, the COVID 19 crisis could bring about a lot of clarity and growth just like the fintech sector got a push in India after the demonetization in 2016.
FAQ’s
1. What is an online doctor consultation or online medical consultation?
When you visit a doctor about your health-related issues through an audio/video/chat, it is called an online doctor consultation or online medical consultation. This is an alternative for you when you cannot visit a doctor physically at the clinic or hospital.
2. How do I consult a doctor online now?
Book an online consultation either on the website or mobile app. Look out for the ‘Find a Doctor’ button on the homepage of the website/app, select the specialty of your problem or type the name of the doctor directly. Once the doctor of your specialty is selected, you can click on the “Consult Now’ button to start with the online consultation.
3. Do you provide online doctor consultation for emergencies?
No, it is not recommended. It is advisable to contact emergency services during emergencies. Emergency medical services are available round-the-clock which can be accessed by calling 112 or clicking the ‘Emergency’ tab on the homepage of the respective website/app.
4. Where is my prescription for the online doctor consultation?
Prescription for your online consult can be found in the Records/History section. By clicking on this tab, you will be able to view/download your prescription.
5. Is it safe to consult online?
Online consultation is absolutely safe and private, where customer information and health data is the most important thing that is kept private.
Humans are amazing animals, I mean we are smart and can do almost anything. Be it flying, cooking, innovating, and even revolutionizing the whole world with unbelievable technology. Think about this, the first computer was built in 1822, by a smart human called Charles Babbage. It used to have vacuum tubes and large compartments for storage. We have grown from that time at a rapid scale and efficiency, we have seen multifold growth in technology.
So much so, that the computer that once occupied a whole room by itself, now sits in your hand. Moreover, it just sits on our palms for a long time now as our screen times jump.
The smartphone industry has grown and has become one of the biggest industries in the world. Right now, there is a smartphone user base in the billions. This growth has led to the establishment of smartphone giants. Behemoth organizations like Apple and Samsung.
We all have that friend who is an ardent fan of apple, and we all have got a friend too who is always in love with Samsung. This takes us back to the smartphone war that has continued since time immemorial. The android vs apple war. This disparity in demographics is a good indicator of the product market. The user market is much skewed in different directions.
This article is the dissection of the silent raging war between Apple and Samsung. Read on to discover stories and not many known facts about the tech hulks.
It’s not a necessity to introduce Apple. The reason is that it is already a brand, a valuable brand which has managed to make a place in the hearts of people all around the world. That also explains why the company has no ‘about us’ section on its website.
Apple is the brainchild of Steve Jobs. It is an American multinational company specializing in consumer products in the tech line. The company is the biggest technology company with its magnanimous revenues and the most valuable company in the world. That too started from a garage and managed to become the most recognizable company in the world. It has been revolutionizing personal tech for decades.
Apple Product Line
Apple 1 was the first computer handmade by Steve Wozniak (Apple co-founder) under the name Apple in 1976. It was a computer encased in a wooden block. Then followed by Apple 2 which was more successful than the predecessor. After the success, they faced good losses in the fall of Apple 3. It faced overheating issues.
After seeing such failure they started to work on innovating something new. To come out of this deep pit, Something that will hopefully revolutionize personal computing.
They began to work on the Macintosh. It was their first computer that supported GUI or Graphic user interface, which allows the user to communicate with the computer in graphical mode. Launched the Macintosh in 1980 and this began the winning strike for apple.
Steve Jobs with John Sculley
It was in 1983 when Steve Jobs famously asked Pepsi CEO John Sculley to be Apple’s next CEO or if he wanted to “sell sugared water for the rest of his life or change the world? ” The relationship went bad later.
To remove him, Steve initiated a move that backfired and ended up removing himself from the board. The company saw good growth under the leadership of Sculley until he was removed because of some failed products.
Later Apple bought ‘Next’ which was founded by Steve Jobs bringing him back as an advisor. He immediately trimmed most of the product density in Apple and made the company as slim as possible and launched new sleek products.
Steve Jobs with the First iPhone
He worked secretly on the first iPhone and launched it in 2007. It was an instant hit. Since then, iPhones have been the most popular phones in the world. A major part of Apple’s revenue comes from them.
The Samsung that we know today, wasn’t this when it started. It has gone through enormous shifts. Surprisingly, the company was not even in the technology business at its inception in 1938. It was a small company dealing in fried fish and noodles. In the 60s it entered the smartphone segment and today is the largest manufacturer of smartphones, televisions, and memory chips in the world.
In 1938, Lee Byung-Chul dropped out of college and founded a small business he named Samsung Trading Co. The initial corporate logo had three stars and was based on a graphical representation of the Korean Hanja word Samsung. It operated with the same Japanese culture as every corporate body, the employees did as they were told.
Soon with a good culture and with government assistance it entered domains like sugar refining, media, textiles, and insurance and became a success. So at this time, it was in good economic condition.
After the succession of third heir Kun-hee, the company saw an opportunity in technology and he invested heavily in semiconductor technologies and transformed Samsung from a manufacturer into a global technology powerhouse.
After Kun’s death, his easy-going son succeeded to the throne and began investing more in smartphones and more in tech. Later the company saw the most profits from smartphone sales. The most famous Samsung phones are Galaxy, after the first launch in 2009. During the third quarter of 2011, Samsung surged past Apple to the number one spot among phone manufacturers, based on shipments.
Samsung, as it saw handsome revenues in the smartphones segment, mocked Apple in many ways. You can still see those commercials on YouTube. So did Apple. They released commercials that defame other pioneer brands openly. This makes the rivalry public and leads to polarisation in the market. Let us discuss it in further detail.
The Rivalry Inception of Samsung and Apple
As the smartphone market and the hype around this continues to grow, smartphone leaders fight for greater dominance in this segment of the product. Behemoth organizations Samsung and Apple are the pioneers in this segment and one of the most famous rivals in the world. They not only fight for a greater market share but the main rivalry is a little off topic, it is a long legal battle into dark plagiarism.
Samsung not only competes with Apple in the notebook, tablets, and smartphones market, It also supplies Apple with crucial items for iPhones like OLED display and flash drive memory chip for storage. The Samsung we know today has not been constant as we consider its long history.
In the 80s the company was primarily focused on the semiconductor business. Apple was one of Samsung’s largest buyers, ordering billions of dollars of parts for electronic devices. Its CEO at that time did meet several times with Steve jobs for advice or negotiations. The two companies had friendly relations with each other. Until something happened.
In 2007 the first iPhone was unveiled to the world. Two years later, in 2009 Samsung came up with a touchscreen device for their market running on Google’s android system. Apple CEO Steve Jobs called Samsung a Copycat. ‘POOF’. Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung. The rivalry began.
According to Walter Issacson, Steve’s biographer, He wanted to start a thermonuclear war against Android in this case of plagiarism and copying apple’s authenticity. From that event, Samsung dared from being a supplier of technological equipment to a competitor in market share. It went from being an ally to a fierce enemy.
Apple was extremely infuriated with this and dragged the matter into court, showcasing that the company is super sensitive about this issue. It filed a lawsuit against Samsung in serious violations of patents and trademarks of Apple’s property rights.
However, the court case wasn’t the first guard of Apple against Samsung. Both the companies Apple and Samsung had a long history of cooperation, so Apple first thought of talking the matter out rather than taking the case to court.
Apple proposed a licensing deal for Samsung for the patents and trademarks. The document stated that Samsung will pay 30$ on selling every smartphone and 40$ on every tablet.
Samsung ofcourse declined the offer, stating that the company hasn’t done anything wrong and is not involved in copying Apple or violating any of the trademarks mentioned in the lawsuit. Not only this, Samsung reversed the licensing agreement onto Apple stating that they are the ones who are copying. This began the row of court cases by these tech hulks against each other.
The lawsuit filed by Apple was specific about the number of patents and the type of patents Samsung violated, let us discuss a little about the violations Apple mentioned.
The Billion Dollar Samsung Apple Lawsuit
The first lawsuit demanded 2.5 billion dollars in damages from Samsung. So we can assume it wasn’t a normal lawsuit. Apple was very serious about their smartphone launch and now with this case too. Samsung however seemed like it was ignoring Apple’s claims of plagiarism and trying to put the burden on Apple themselves.
Trade Dress
It is a visual form of patent, that deals with the visual and overall look of a product. Sometimes companies copy some famous brand’s product look and hope to generate sales. As people tend no not to look about details of a product, rather they just pick up based on the appearance of something. It instills confusion in consumers. Samsung Galaxy phone was the first touchscreen phone in the Samsung product line and it looked mostly the same as the newly launched iPhone.
Trademark Infringement
Apple Samsung Design Similarity
While Samsung could argue on the physical appearance being similar with iPhone but another thing the lawsuit included was trademark infringement. The icons on the iPhone were strikingly similar to those in Samsung’s phone. This turns the eyebrows up for Samsung. As there can be thousands of ways of designing icons and GUI effects, Samsung chose in most cases icons similar to that of the iPhone.
Other than these the lawsuit also concluded the methods of copying of the home screen, the design of the front button, and the outlook of the app’s menu. All these were some specific irks for Samsung.
The case began in 2011 and went on to go worldwide. By July 2012, the two companies were still tangled in more than 50 lawsuits around the globe, with billions of dollars in damages claimed between them.
Hearing both sides, the law court ruled in the favour of Apple. The basis was their legitimate concerns about their product being copied in the open market. Samsung paid $1 billion in compensation to the iPhone designer.
“I am talking to you on a phone right now that Apple just copied,” said Brian Wallace, Samsung’s former vice president for strategic marketing. “It’s a giant phone that Steve Jobs made fun of. Who was right? Samsung was right.”
After this and all the cases in between this first court case, Samsung didn’t stay shut. It widely talked against Apple and filed lawsuits claiming infringements of their company policies and patents. These behemoths fought each other like wild animals. Suffering millions on each side, Tore each other apart in claims.
Conclusion
Apple claimed that Samsung had copied the iPhone, leading to a long-running series of lawsuits that were only finally resolved in 2018, with Apple being awarded US$539 million. Issues between the two companies continue. They are now perhaps best described as ‘frenemies’.
While tech hulks like these two fight for global dominance and the crown of the most innovative technology pioneer, it is sure that smartphones are a hot topic. It seems like everyone wants the latest phone to set a trend. From the latest Samsung foldable phone to the iPhones sold as a jewel. This market kind of seems like a fashion innovation.
Apple and Samsung will most probably rule until someone innovates in between. Whatever it will be, humans are fascinated and the future is exciting.
FAQ
Who won the Samsung Apple lawsuit?
Apple won the patent dispute against Samsung and was awarded $1.049 billion in damages for 6 of the 7 patents brought to bear.
Why did Apple sue Samsung?
Apple initially sued Samsung on grounds of patent infringement.
Who launched first smartphone Apple or Samsung?
Apple iPhone was launched in 2007 and two years later, in 2009, Samsung released their first Galaxy phone on the same date.
There are over 2775 billionaires present in the world and with a total net worth of $13.1 trillion. The country that tops the list of most number of billionaires is the United States of America. The number of billionaires may seem less in a world where billions of people exist but these few have created businesses that made them who they are today; It has also changed the outlook of all those industries from where they came from.
These people turned their ideas into successful businesses and are now earning billions of dollars. All these are not that easy, one needs to be the best in their field for that.
You may find billionaires in almost every industry, but there are some that have given the world a larger number of billionaires who are out there ruling it. What is intriguing is that even during the pandemic, the wealth of billionaires has increased over an average of 27% in many industries.
In this article, we will talk about the industries that have given the most number of billionaires to the world. So let’s get started.
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”
The top position is taken by the industry of technology in this. Some of the data suggest that 70% of the top 10 richest people belong from the technology industry. It is in the first position because of evident reasons.
Technology serves us with the solution for almost any kind of problems and has taken the responsibility to make our life easier. It is quite evident that with new innovation every day, the tech industry will provide the world with more billionaires in the future.
Top billionaires in the tech industry
Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
Elon Musk (Tesla, Space X)
Bill Gates (Microsoft)
Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
Healthcare
The pandemic was a severe boost to the healthcare sector and has worked as a boon for many healthcare companies. Vaccine producers, diagnostic test producers saw immaculate growth in their business. Since 2020, the healthcare industry is surging at a tremendous pace and with the current condition, it seems unlikely to stop.
The strike of Covid-19 proves how health is a prime factor in human lives and without it; everything will just become a façade. The global healthcare industry is ready to reach over $10 trillion by 2022.
Top billionaires in the Healthcare industry
Jiang Rensheng & family (Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products)
Li Xiting (Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics)
Zhong Huijuan (Hansoh Pharmaceutical)
Xu Hang (Mindray Medical)
Finance And Investments
There are reports that state that the most number of billionaires in modern times comes from the Finance and investment sector. The business of money has been quite a success in the recent era. The money made by the people even the billionaires are managed by financial institutions. Whenever people transact money they take help from these financial institutions, so it is quite probable that this sector comes in the list of the top 10.
The entire world economy depends on financial institutions. Fintech startups are taking the world in storms and these industries would use the opportunity to create more billionaires in the future as they are the root of the economy.
The production of goods with the help 0f machines, tools as well as labor from raw materials is one of the most important sectors, as almost every creation depends on this. It is said to be the driving force since forever.
The growth of a nation immensely depends on the manufacturing sector. The manufacturing sector has seen a huge surge even during the Covid-19, this sector has over 300 billionaires in the world.
Top billionaires in the Manufacturing industry
He Xiangjian (Midea Group)
Fashion and Retail
Clothes are another significant necessity in human life. The fashion and retail industry focuses on making clothes. It is a $2.5 trillion industry and deals with luxury apparel brands. Fashion startups are also making noise in this sector and are on the verge of producing more and more billionaires in the future. There are 273 billionaires in the world in this industry.
Top billionaires in the Fashion industry
Bernard Arnault (LVMH)
Amancio Ortega (Inditex)
Phil Knight (Nike)
François Pinault (Kering)
Food And Beverage
Over 7 billion people exist in this world, so naturally, food must be provided to all of them. The number is only going to increase in the future; therefore the growth of this industry is inevitable. This sector till now has successfully contributed in the list of industries that have given us the most number of billionaires.
All other things can wait but for the survival of a human being, food and beverages are the most significant things. The food and beverages industry has over 219 billionaires from all over the world and it is only going to increase in the future.
Top billionaires in the Food and Beverage industry
Zhong Shanshan (Nongfu Spring)
Giovanni Ferrero (The Ferrero Group)
Qin Yinglin & family (Muyuan Foodstuff Co.)
Jacqueline Mars (Mars Inc.)
Real Estate
It is said to be the oldest source of creation of wealth. It is also said to be an open industry where anyone can be a part of it who are interested to. People who are already billionaires and are wealthy also show their interest in investing in the real estate industry, as it is considered as one of the most profitable sectors. There are over 215 billionaires in this sector.
Top billionaires in the Real Estate industry
Lee Shau Kee (Henderson Land Development)
Hui Ka Yan (Evergrande Group)
Yang Huiyan & family (Country Garden Holdings)
Wu Yajun (Longfor Properties)
Hospitality Industry
It is another important form of industry that has given quite a number of wealthy people. Providing the guests with home-like services is one of the main factors of this industry. Food, comfort, entertainment, and lodging are all included in this sector. The global hospitality market is expected to reach $4132.5 billion by the end of 2021.
Top billionaires in the Hospitality industry
Sheldon Adelson (Sands Hotel)
Donald Trump
William Barron Hilton (Hilton Hotels & Resorts)
Phillip Ruffin (Ruffin’s hotel)
Renewable Energy
Climate change is a serious factor in the world, right now. Saving the world has become a necessity, thanks to this industry some of the billionaires are able to make tons of money and become a savior as well. The energy market is coming out slowly and is on verge of becoming one of the most important sectors in the near future. It has given the world over 180 billionaires.
Top billionaires in the Renewable Energy industry
Elon Musk
Robin Zeng (Amperex Technology)
Aloys Wobben (Enercon)
Li Zhenguo (LONGi Green Energy)
Entertainment and Media
The entertainment industry is a very big part of the world economy. Digital media technology has started helping people make big in this industry. There is a need for entertainment in life, especially during the Covid-19 lockdown, this sector helped people to avoid boredom. Dramas, films, music all these are the source of entertainment. This sector has 95 billionaires and more in the making.
Top billionaires in the Entertainment and Media industry
Being a billionaire is not an easy job, one needs to have patience, perseverance, and the will to do hard work. Some of the industries are recently on-trend and have provided the world with the most number of billionaires. It doesn’t mean that it is easy in these industries to make tons of money, in fact, it is quite hard and challenging.
FAQ
Which industry produces the most billionaires?
Technology industry is one industry that produces the most billionaires.
Which Industry creates the most millionaires?
The financial service sector has the most number of millionaires.
What jobs can make you a millionaire?
Professional athlete, Investment banker, Entrepreneur, and Real estate agent some of the industries that can make you a millionaire.
The opportunity for digital transformation for organizations remains a constant presence that is becoming a prerequisite to success. According to the latest IDG State of Digital Business Transformation report, which monitors the state of digitalization in businesses, over 44% of organizations have already put going digital at the forefront of their decision-making processes, operations, and end-user engagement.
To be competitive, viable, and profitable in an increasingly digitalized environment, today’s businesses are focusing on digital transformation.
While technology is often connected with digitalisation, it is merely one of the levers that propel the company ahead. The holy trinity of people, process, and technology remains the foundation for successful transformation, but these skills have been reinterpreted for the digital ecosystem.
Success will be determined by getting people, process, technology, and data right, regardless of the urge to transform, pull or push. These four forces facilitate transformation, but they also have the potential to sabotage it. This is how you can make digital transformation work for you.
Below are some key drivers that push businesses to undergo digital transformation.
Survival
Advances in digital technology have taken the economy and the business field by storm. The latest technology, New software, enhanced equipment, and better processes emerge overnight, which could make or break a company if it does not get on board and ride the waves of change.
The effects of these advancements mean more significant innovation, more opportunities, and heightened efficiency for the business. However, without digital transformation, these benefits remain an unreachable goal. Companies are faced with a choice: to sink or swim.
Drivers of Digital Transformation
Customer Expectations
Almost anything and everything can now be accessed with a click of a button. Boundaries such as location are no longer an obstacle for someone from Asia who wants to order merchandise from North America. Furthermore, what used to be months for the item to be shipped has been shortened to one or two weeks. This increase in convenience gave companies like Amazon the upper hand in the industry. Today, when someone purchases anything online, he or she expects a shortened shipping period because of the standards established by the big players.
On the business side, companies are forced to continuously improve their processes by leveraging digital tools to give their customers the best experience possible. It also through digital means that a company could reach out to its end-users to obtain valuable information and feedback.
Need For Speed
CIO of the InterContinental Hotel Group, Eric Pearson, noted that there had been changes in the industry wherein it is no longer about the “big beating the small” but the “fast beating the slow.” Technological advancements will continue to emerge – it’s up to the company whether to adapt and transform or to wait and potentially lose to those who were quick to act.
Role of AI
Artificial Intelligence is another key driver that pushes businesses toward digital transformation. Beyond self-thinking robots, AI in the business context refers to practical systems that automate tasks once governed by humans. AI is comprised of the following core ideas:
Comprehension – The ability of a system to discern and analyze data and transform it into valuable information.
Sensing – Components that collect text, voice, image, or other forms of input from systems.
Analysis – Components that implement algorithms or a set of rules on problem-solving capabilities.
Guidance – The ability of a component to request human assistance, verification, or approval.
Action – A component that could “act on its own” without the efforts of a human, such as paying a bill online or submitting reports to a company portal.
The Emergence of Infrastructure Automation Software
With the spotlight focused on digital transformation, a niche was created, and companies that could provide a smoother transition to digitalization emerged. These companies develop software catered to the requirements of an organization that streamline the entire process. Because time is of the essence for businesses and the ability to adopt digitalization in the shortest period provides a competitive advantage, enterprises utilize infrastructure automation software.
The road to digitalization is a fast-paced and volatile journey. Fortunately for businesses, there are many tools available that could make the adventure more feasible and worthwhile.
Conclusion
For today’s business, digital transformation is the most crucial potential. It’s not so much about having a choice as it is about knowing how to handle it. While all three traditional change levers – people, process, and technology – must all play a part, it is without a doubt data that distinguishes today’s urgency and opportunity.
Businesses that were fast to provide a digital face to their end customers are still failing to reflect that strategy in the middle and back end of their operations. Nonetheless, it is from there that true change emerges. The client-centricity that determines success will be driven by collecting data about everything and feeding it back into increasingly automated solutions. The possibilities are limitless.
FAQs
What are digital business drivers?
Survival, Customer Expectations, Role of AI, etc.
What is digital transformation? or What is meant by digital transformation?
Digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to create new or modify existing business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements.
What is digital transformation examples?
AI-powered chatbots that answer simple customer inquiries serve as a welcoming presence on your website, reducing the time customers have to wait to reach an agent.
What is the purpose of digital transformation?
Digital transformation involves optimizing processes and making workflows faster, easier, and more efficient because instead of spending hours processing paperwork, you can create digital workflows which increase efficiency and allow employees to focus on other activities.
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 InMobi.
InMobi is an Indian global mobile advertising technology company based out of Bangalore, India. Its mobile-first platform allows brands, developers and publishers to engage consumers through contextual mobile advertising.
In 2008, it was enhanced from SMS-based services to mobile advertising and rebranded as InMobi. The company has been backed by SoftBank, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Ram Shriram’s Sherpalo Ventures. The company has grown into one of India’s first Unicorns since its inception.
InMobi is an Indian company that offers mobile advertising services. It offers solutions such as brand awareness, user acquisition, remarketing, and monetization for publishers. In addition, the company also provides products for marketing cloud, such as customer data platform (CDP), market research platform, and customer experience platform for the solutions, including organizing data and uncover the insights, get insights of market and customers, and measure and improve customer satisfaction.
InMobi develops an advertisement serving algorithm that helps in optimizing the ranking of the advertisements served on mobile phones. It has enhanced from SMS-based services to mobile advertising and rebranded as InMobi and very soon, InMobi became the first Indian unicorn startup company.
InMobi – Latest News
October 13, 2021 – InMobi Group’s Roposo launches its ‘creator-led, live entertainment commerce’ with which it forays into the live commerce segment.
June 14, 2021 – InMobi-owned Glance acquires social eCommerce company Shop101 to strengthen their eCommerce layer for Glance and Roposo.
April 28, 2021 – InMobi launches the all-new in-game advertising that will help global brands and agencies to promote their products without annoying them even when they are absorbed in their games
December 22, 2020 – InMobi’s mobile-first content platform Glance raised $145 million in fresh funding in the latest round led by Google.
InMobi’s Glance raises $145 Million funding led by Google
InMobi – Logo and its Meaning
InMobi’s logo symbolizes the constant delivery of dynamic communications, to a variety of consumers, on every mobile platform around the world.
InMobi Logo
According to the spokesperson for InMobi, “After countless concepts, design experiments, and revisions, we selected this new logo. It was the one design that we felt truly represented the energy and impact of the InMobi mobile ad network.”
InMobi – Founder and History
InMobi founded in 2007 as mKhoj(mobile Khoj) an SMS-based search engine services by four founders- Naveen Tiwari, Mohit Saxena, Amit Gupta, Abhay Singhal in Bengaluru. Due to the company’s focus on mobile advertising from mobile search they changed it from InMobi.
InMobi started in 2007, when it was known as mKhoj (mobile khoj), providing SMS-based search engine services. Started by the four founders out of a residential flat in Bangalore, it has since grown into one of India’s first Unicorns.
The founders later felt the need to rebrand to InMobi as the company shifted focus from mobile search to mobile advertising. The company initially focused on growing the business in emerging markets such as Asia, Africa and entered US in 2009. By this time, InMobi had already established their presence in the developing nations. ‘InMobi’ was also thought to be easier to pronounce in English as compared to mKhoj – which is a derivative of the Hindi word for ‘search’.
InMobi initially limited its services to Asia. However, in 2010 it raised $8 million in funding from Sherpalo Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. This investment inspired confidence in the firm and encouraged it to market itself globally. It began expanding to the U.S., Australia, and several countries in Europe. A $200 million round of funding from Softbank the following year enabled InMobi to scale rapidly in these markets.
China has been a particular bright spot. The company launched there in 2011, but now claims to be one of the largest mobile ad networks in the country. It serves 30,000 applications and witnesses 400 million impresses a day there. Globally-speaking, InMobi’s reach now extends to 700 million smartphone owners worldwide. Its growth has been fostered further through multiple acquisitions made between 2011 and 2013, with acquired firms including Metaflow Solutions and Overlay Media
InMobi – Mission
InMobi’s mission statement says,
“Our culture is our true north as we nurture all InMobians to maximize their potential by enabling them to think big, giving them complex challenges to solve and providing opportunities to grow.”
InMobi’s mission is to enable consumers and businesses to make smarter decisions.
InMobi evolved from advertising to commerce on the smartphone to a consumer brand. Advertising depends on the culture, and social aspects of each region and the company support it in many ways understanding the nuances of each market. InMobi is dedicated to providing customers with data as much as possible about their performances. Since it is a technology company, it is invested in building a product which goes a step further and analyses the data whenever an ad is clicked.
InMobi has a cost-driven structure, aiming to minimize expenses through significant automation. Its biggest cost driver is likely research and development, as it invests heavily in technology. Other major drivers are in the areas of sales/marketing and customer support/operations.
InMobi – Revenue and Growth
InMobi appears to have one revenue stream: the fees it charges developers, retailers, and brands for use of its platform. No information is available regarding pricing. With Glance growing nearly three-and-half times in 2019, InMobi expects a 200 per cent growth by the end of this year also on a very large base.
InMobi acquires Shop101 on June 14, 2021. Talks were already ripe, discussions were in the advanced stage, and the “contours of the deal are almost finalized,” said one of the company’s sources on June 1, 2021. The mobile-first advertisement services platform had been looking for an eCommerce platform to market Glance and Roposo, two of its most valued products, and it seems to have laid out its path by acquiring Shop101. The success of this deal announces the second acquisition of company in the last six-seven months after it had acquired Roposo in a distress sale last year.
Roposo of the InMobi Group forayed into the live eCommerce segment with the launch of its “creator-led, live entertainment commerce” on October 13, 2021. This new offering will help the consumers to shop for their products in real-time with some of “their most loved creators.” Furthermore, they can do this while they take part in a contemporary pop culture that is entertaining and within a live environment, which resembles a “virtual mall”.
InMobi – Funding and Investors
InMobi has raised a total of $465.6M in funding over 8 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on December 22, 2020. InMobi’s mobile-first content platform Glance raised $145 million in fresh funding in this round, led by Google
Date
Round
Amount
Lead Investors
December 22, 2020
$145 Million
Google
Jan 1, 2019
Venture Round
–
Lightbox
Sep 29, 2015
Debt Financing
$100M
–
Dec 2, 2014
Venture Round
$5M
SoftBank Capita
Sep 15, 2011
Series C
$200M
SoftBank Capital
Jul 13, 2010
Series B
$8M
Kleiner Perkins, Sherpalo Ventures
Jan 1, 2008
Series A
$7.1M
–
Jan 1, 2007
Angel Round
$500K
–
InMobi – Investments
InMobi has invested in NestAway on Mar 16, 2015. This investment – Seed Round – NestAway – was valued at $1.2M.
InMobi – Acquisitions
InMobi has acquired 9 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was Roposo on Nov 25, 2019. They are further eyeing to acquire Shop101 this year, as per June 2021.
Acquiree Name
Date
Amount
About Acquiree
Roposo
Nov 25, 2019
–
Roposo – TV by the People is a unique social media platform where people express visually with homemade videos and photos
Pinsight Media
Oct 17, 2018
–
Pinsight Media are the human element at the convergence of mobile data and technology. Data Fueled Insights Driven. Powered by Sprint
AerServ
Jan 10, 2018
$90M
AerServ is a free mobile SSP and monetization platform that empowers mobile publishers with a superior technology platform
Overlay Media
Jan 9, 2013
–
Overlay Media develops context-aware and location-sensing mobile technologies
Metaflows
Aug 1, 2012
–
MetaFlows develops network security technology that findinds hidden malware and other network threats that would otherwise go unnoticed
Appbistro
Jul 13, 2012
–
Appbistro, an application marketplace for the Facebook platform, enables brands and businesses to build out their fan pages effectively
MMTG Labs
Jul 13, 2012
–
MMTG Labs operates an online marketplace that provides Facebook timeline applications and business tools
Appstores.com
Jul 9, 2012
–
Appstores.com develops tools that indicate the relevant applications required for catering to users’ needs
Sprout
Aug 2, 2011
–
Sprout provides a platform integrated with mobile ad networks and publishers, enabling professionals to create media HTML5 ads
InMobi won the ‘NDTV Indian of the Year’ award in 2016
InMobi was ranked 15th on the ‘World’s Top 50 Innovative Companies 2016’ by Fast Company, a US-based business magazine. InMobi was also the number one company from India on the list ranked at 15th
InMobi was featured amongst The Economic Times ‘India’s best workplaces of 2016’ for workplace culture transformation. InMobi was amongst the ‘50 Disruptive companies 2013’ list by MIT Technology Review.
InMobi won the bronze award in the category Enabling Technologies, Location based Advertising by Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), Global Smarties Awards 2015 in partnership with Unilever and Mindshare.
InMobi named one amongst Fast Company- The World’s Most Innovative Companies, 2016.
InMobi named on CNBC Disruptor 50 list for 2018.
InMobi named one amongst Fast Company- The World’s Most Innovative Companies, 2018.
The first challenge was when the team decided to pivot when their chat application wasn’t gaining traction. “Pivoting really lead to the next level of growth for us,” Naveen Tiwari, the CEO, said.
“We never sent anybody from India to set up in those markets. We always hired a local person to lead the team. In some cases, it worked brilliantly. But when we got the wrong person, it failed miserably. We realized it had nothing do with the market or its size or anything like that. It just literally boiled down to the leader in the market,” Naveen added.
InMobi laid off approximately 10 per cent of its workforce in April 2016, due to the company reeling under losses of US$45.5 million in 2014-15 and US$40.91 million in 2015–16 in a bid to show profitability. The company also saw major attrition in their senior management during this phase. InMobi has refuted the claims, by stating that they added 184 full employees in 2016 and their voluntary attrition rates are lower than the industry average with 80% of the executive team at InMobi has an average tenure of more than four years.
“The first phase of the company was about survival and the second about focusing on the business model, followed by scaling up,” Naveen Tewari, co-founder and chief executive officer of InMobi, said. “Now, we are at a stage of taking bigger and bolder bets that we didn’t think we would take a few years ago.”
Despite the problems, InMobi has had a great reception around the world. Today, the company is close to reaching 700 million smartphone users across the world. InMobi was also recently crowned by MIT Technology Review as one of the 50 most disruptive companies in the world.
Growing from a startup to a multi-national corporation, InMobi faces challenges like any fast growing young company would too. The CEO of InMobi says that as a young organization with little processes it was tough running a global operation with 25 offices while keeping one culture, one system, and communicating clearly with everyone.
“As a company what we faced was to showcase and tell people that we have a great product. People expect great products coming out of Silicon Valley, innovations coming out of Silicon Valley and probably didn’t expect that innovation to come from an Indian company,” he further added.
Today, InMobi can pat its chest and call itself a global company. Outside of India, it has offices and operations in Australia, Taiwan, the US, the UK, France, Italy, Russia, Germany, China and more. Despite launching in China only in late 2011, Naveen says that InMobi is “one of the largest mobile ad networks in China.”
InMobi – FAQs
Is InMobi a tech company?
InMobi is a company that offers mobile advertising services. It offers solutions such as brand awareness, user acquisition, remarketing, and monetization for publishers.
Who is the founder of InMobi?
InMobi founded in 2007 as mKhoj(mobile Khoj) an SMS-based search engine services by four founders- Naveen Tiwari, Mohit Saxena, Amit Gupta, Abhay Singhal in Bengaluru.
How does InMobi make money?
InMobi primarily earns from targeted advertisements on mobile apps of partner publishers. The cash register rings each time an end-consumer clicks an ad or downloads the subsequent offering.
What is the InMobi ad network?
Yes, InMobi is an ad-networking company.
Who is the CEO of InMobi?
Naveen Tiwari is the current CEO of InMobi.
InMobi – Conclusion
InMobi was conceptualized and born against all odds. A company based out of India tackling mobile in 2007 was no ordinary task. Venture Capital was hard to come by and investors frowned on internet companies from India. InMobi was founded in this opaque environment because its founders had foresight and the required passion to be able to disrupt an industry. Some of the world’s greatest innovations are always met with hostility and InMobi was no different. This is the story – the story of how they built a tech powerhouse headquartered in India.
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 HSBC-backed Serai.
The global textile market size is anticipated to reach USD 1412.5 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 4.4% from 2021 to 2028. Disrupting the supply chain solutions in this domain, HSBC-backed company Serai has built a digital B2B platform that allows verified apparel buyers, brands, suppliers, and manufacturers to easily search for and connect with each other.
Serai is the non-banking extension of HSBC’s global physical network and hence is a fully owned subsidiary of HSBC. While the company is a part of HSBC Group, it is not a financial institution and acts outside the bank. It has over 10,000 companies on its B2B platform from over 100 countries including India, Bangladesh, the US, UK, and Australia. The number of companies on the platform has grown at 98% QOQ. In 2021, Serai also launched a Traceability solution that allows global apparel brands and manufacturers to trace and map their global supply chain from raw material to finished product
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Vivek Ramachandran (CEO of Serai) to know the growth story and roadmap of Serai. He also shared insights on how Serai started, its business model, expansion plans, marketing strategies adopted & more…
Serai – Company Highlights
Company Name
Serai
Headquarters
Hong Kong
Owner
HSBC
CEO
Vivek Ramachandran
Founding Team
Andrew Dennison (COO), Kar-Lyn Tan (Head of Product Partnerships), Patrick Balling (Partnerships Director), Vivek Ramachandran (CEO)
Founded in 2019, Serai is the digital B2B platform by HSBC that makes global trade easier for apparel businesses. As a member, you can build new relationships and strengthen existing ones. Companies can share information about their business, products, and services to create a trusted ecosystem across the supply chain.
Through a single platform, members can access industry business solutions and exchange complex information from multiple data sources to gain visibility into their supply chain.
Serai Platform
Serai’s digital B2B platform allows verified apparel buyers, brands, suppliers, and manufacturers to easily search for and connect with each other. Companies can create a profile to showcase their products, services, facilities, and credentials. Serai helps companies reduce time and money spent on sourcing high-quality suppliers. With Covid making international travel almost impossible, Serai makes it easy for brands and buyers to build relationships with suppliers and manufacturers globally.
This year (2021), Serai also launched a Traceability solution that allows global apparel brands and manufacturers to trace and map their global supply chain from raw material to finished product. They can easily collect and manage data from their supply chain partners. Having all this information in one place can help them drive operational efficiencies, manage underlying risks and eventually achieve greater transparency and trust in their extended supply chain.
Serai’s vision is to build technology that can help to shape the future of trade.
Its B2B network aims to simplify global trade by enabling apparel businesses to showcase their products and services, connect and build stronger relationships. Its supply chain solutions help consolidate fragmented supply chain data, providing large apparel companies with the right data and insights so that they can make more informed decisions.
“It’s all about taking the complexities out of global trade. Beginning with a focus on the apparel industry, Serai’s goal is for every company, regardless of industry, to have a profile on its platform” says Vivek Ramachandran, CEO @ Serai
Serai – Industry Details
Serai currently focuses on the apparel, textile, and fabrics industries. The global textile market size is anticipated to reach USD 1412.5 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 4.4% from 2021 to 2028. The Asia Pacific is also set to rebound faster from Covid, with China, Japan, and India dominating the top five apparel markets in the world.
The apparel industry has always been quite traditional and opaque. Businesses have always relied on sourcing garments and fabrics in person. However, travel restrictions brought about by Covid-19 have forced businesses to digitize. The team has seen a huge change in mindset where apparel companies are more open to exploring new ways of forming connections and doing business.
On the other hand, there is also rising pressure from regulatory bodies, consumers, and NGOs for the apparel industry to be more transparent about where their products come from. They see large brands and manufacturers exploring technology that helps them track their supply chains from end-to-end, and gain visibility into where their products come from. These have been positive changes and the team sees the industry continuing to head on this trajectory.
“In the next five years, we also imagine that data will play a bigger part in driving more informed decision-making. For example, the insights could help them understand their consumers better and build a more targeted product mix” Vivek added.
Supply chain data on areas such as consumption of water, energy, and greenhouse gas, or man-hours spent throughout the various stages in the supply chain, can help companies increase operational efficiencies or be more sustainable.
Serai’s digital B2B platform allows verified apparel buyers, brands, suppliers, and manufacturers to easily search for and connect with each other. Companies can create a profile to showcase their products, services, facilities, and credentials. Serai helps companies reduce time and money spent on sourcing high-quality suppliers. With Covid making international travel almost impossible, the Serai B2B network makes it easy for brands and buyers to build relationships with suppliers and manufacturers globally.
This year, Serai also launched a Traceability solution that allows global apparel brands and manufacturers to trace and map their global supply chain from raw material to finished product. They will be able to easily collect and manage data from their supply chain partners. Having all this information in one place can help them drive operational efficiencies, manage underlying risks and eventually achieve greater transparency and trust in their extended supply chain.
Serai Traceability
Pivot from the Initial Offering & Why
While its mission has always been to simplify global trade through technology, Serai’s target audiences have evolved for its B2B digital platform.
While it has apparel businesses of all sizes on the platform, Serai has seen more usage from small and medium-sized companies. They may not have the sourcing network that a larger, more established brand would have, and so, have seen a lot of value from a platform like Serai’s. Hence, many of the features that Serai introduced recently are focused on helping them further. For example, Serai launched a request for quotation (RFQ) feature where brands and buyers can upload specific requests for manufacturers and suppliers to respond directly to.
Serai’s Traceability solution is another example of something it built in response to industry requirements. It was initially developed to help a global manufacturer client to trace their supply chain from material to shelf, but having seen such a positive response from the industry at large, the team @ Serai continue to build on the core offering, adding more modules aimed at helping apparel companies achieve supply chain sustainability.
Serai – Founding Team and How it Started
HSBC was founded in 1865 with one key objective – facilitating international trade. Ever since HSBC has used its global network to connect customers to opportunities around the world. However, despite tech-driven improvements in most areas of business, international trade remains as complex today as it was more than 150 years ago.
To simplify trade, HSBC needed to look beyond banking. Serai was born from this insight and a big idea – a data-powered platform to help businesses grow and connect globally.
The idea for Serai came out of a ‘Dragon’s Den’-style competition organized by HSBC UK. Vivek Ramachandran, current Chief Executive Officer of Serai, led a team of four in pitching the idea of a digital platform aimed at simplifying trade. At that time, he was the Global Head of Growth & Innovation for HSBC Commercial Banking where part of his role was driving the adoption of new technologies.
Serai team
While HSBC’s key objective has always been to facilitate global trade, this would be the first time the bank would invest in a non-financial project. The HSBC executives saw great potential in a platform like Serai to disrupt the otherwise traditional industry of apparel.
The rest of the founding team comprises – Andrew Dennison, Chief Operations Officer; Kar-Lyn Tan, Head of Product Partnerships; and Patrick Balling, Partnerships Director at Serai. They were all working at HSBC UK in various capacities at that time.
In two years, Serai has grown to about 60 people in its headquarters in Hong Kong in various departments such as Growth & Marketing, Product, Technology, and Data Analytics. Serai was founded on the values of Simplicity, Empathy, Transparency, Boldness, Partnership which remain integral in everything Serai does.
Serai Office
Serai – Name, Tagline and Logo
Serai comes from the word Caravanserai, which was inns along the Silk Road. Merchants between East and West would rest, trade goods, exchange knowledge, and build relationships at these inns. The Serai of that time was an entry to international trade. Inspired by these ancient hubs, it aspires to build a digital equivalent for today.
Serai’s logo symbol is inspired by the aerial view of the ancient Serai. The central squared hole resembles that of an ancient Chinese coin, reflecting its Hong Kong origin.
Serai Logo
Its tagline, ‘Your Advantage in Apparel Trade’, clearly represents what Serai wants to deliver to its clients.
Serai – Business Model and Revenue Model
Serai is the digital B2B platform. Creating a profile on Serai is free. However, businesses can pay for premium services such as being promoted as a featured business on its platform or gaining access to data and analytics to help them further grow. Serai’s supply chain solutions, such as Traceability, also come at an added cost.
At Serai, the team has always taken an integrated approach to its marketing strategy. While it is a global company, Serai believes it’s incredibly important to localize its marketing for its target markets. This is especially pertinent for a diverse region like the Asia Pacific, where one has to cater to various languages, cultures, and audience preferences.
When we first started, our primary objective was to build brand awareness so we engaged the main trade and business media globally to get media coverage” says, Vivek Ramachandran, CEO @ Serai.
The company also saw success through digital marketing campaigns via channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google which has helped in customer acquisition.
Partnerships are also key to Serai’s growth strategy. The company has established good relationships with local trade associations in its focus markets, working with them to run initiatives and marketing programs that support the manufacturers and brands in the apparel industry. Another focus area has been to develop partnerships with other like-minded technology and data providers, and sustainability-focused organizations to collaborate on developing solutions that support its users to learn and understand their potential and existing supply chain partners.
Serai’s marketing mix continues to be a mixture of digital and offline activities aimed at increasing brand awareness and customer acquisition including paid ads on major social media and search platforms, events and media engagement. With all these initiatives, though, it’s important to ensure they are integrated and convey similar messaging. This has helped the company build a strong brand identity.
Events have played a huge part in increasing its brand awareness. The company has taken part in major industry conferences and organized its own webinars. In India, for example – the company ran a webinar on how Indian apparel businesses can grow through digitization earlier this year. Serai is currently looking at participating in upcoming trade conferences in India.
Naturally, the marketing team has grown over the last two years so there are teams dedicated to areas such as content, digital marketing, events, PR, and partnerships. It has ramped up content creation, with topics localized for focus markets. Partnerships with major industry associations such as the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) in India have also helped the company reach a wider audience.
The apparel industry is one that is very traditional and opaque. The team realized at the beginning that a lot of companies rely on traditional methods of sourcing and connecting with companies. There was a low digital quotient across the industry.
“We’ve seen this slowly change, though, with more companies embracing digitization. We had to do a lot of education on the importance of having a strong digital presence” Vivek Ramachandran added.
This included working closely with many of its MSME clients in helping them create strong digital profiles on Serai’s platform and making meaningful connections to help grow their business. There is definitely an appetite for them to improve which is heartening.
Serai – Current State and Expansion Plans
Serai is headquartered in Hong Kong, with a team of about 60 employees – a number that is rapidly growing as Serai continues to build its Technology, Data, and Product teams.
There are over 10,000 companies on Serai from over 100 countries including India, Bangladesh, the US, UK, and Australia. Out of this, Serai has registered over 4600 are Indian companies on its platform. These include leading Indian manufacturers such as Pearl Global, Shivalik Prints, Radnik Exports, and Indian Designs. The number of companies on the platform has grown at 98% QOQ.
Serai’s expansion strategy is aligned with market demand. Most of its business is centered around countries that are major apparel hubs. Being headquartered in Hong Kong, it was a natural focus in the beginning. While it still is, the company has branched out to Bangladesh and India as there are two major manufacturing hubs in Asia. India will continue to remain a huge focus over the next year. Over in the West, it has focused on the US and the UK as many major apparel brands are based there.
“We will continue to monitor trends in trade corridors as we prioritize market expansion” Vivek added.
The team is also continuously building new features for its solutions. For the B2B digital platform, it is adding features that encourage more interaction between its member companies, making it easier for them to network and trade with each other.
Serai would also be launching a supply chain Visibility solution soon which allows apparel businesses to visualize, analyze and verify information on their supply chain in one place. With supply chain sustainability and transparency being huge priorities for the industry, this is an area that would be a key focus in terms of product development.
Serai has built great partnerships with industry associations such as the BGMEA and AEPC, with whom it has collaborated to help apparel companies in Bangladesh and India grow respectively. However, the company’s greatest achievement would be the rapid and tremendous growth it has seen of companies joining and building relationships with each other on the platform. Serai was established to simplify trade and the team is doing that slowly but surely. Serai has seen various success stories over the last few months of apparel MSMEs who have established new business partnerships with companies all over the world.
Serai – FAQs
What is Serai?
Serai is the digital B2B platform by HSBC that makes global trade easier for apparel businesses. As a member, you can build new relationships and strengthen existing ones. Companies can share information about their business, products, and services to create a trusted ecosystem across the supply chain.
Who founded Serai?
Vivek Ramachandran, the current CEO of Serai, led a team of four in pitching the idea of a digital platform aimed at simplifying trade. The rest of the founding team comprises – Andrew Dennison, Kar-Lyn Tan, and Patrick Balling.
What is Serai’s business model?
Serai is the digital B2B platform. Creating a profile on Serai is free. However, businesses can pay for premium services such as being promoted as a featured business on its platform or gaining access to data and analytics to help them further grow. Serai’s supply chain solutions, such as Traceability, also come at an added cost.
What is Serai’s tagline?
Serai’s tagline, ‘Your Advantage in Apparel Trade’, clearly represents what Serai wants to deliver to its clients.
Is Serai free?
Creating a profile on Serai is free. However, businesses can pay for premium services such as being promoted as a featured business on its platform or gaining access to data and analytics to help them further grow.
What is Supply Chain Traceability solution?
Serai launched a Traceability solutionthat allows global apparel brands and manufacturers to trace and map their global supply chain from raw material to finished product. They can easily collect and manage data from their supply chain partners.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved byGojek.
While Indonesia’s digital economy is predicted to rise to $124 billion by 2025, according to a 2020 research by Google, Temasek Holdings, and Bain & Company, the country’s 18,000 islands are spread across a region larger than the European Union, making it highly costly.
As rivals bulk up in the fast-expanding market, Indonesian ride-hailing and payments provider Gojek and e-commerce leader Tokopedia are merging to form GoTo, a multi-billion dollar internet corporation. Gojek, based in Jakarta, is an Indonesian on-demand multi-service and electronic payment tech company.
As of May 2021, Indonesian ride-hailing and payments provider Gojek and e-commerce leader Tokopedia are merging to form GoTo, a multi-billion dollar internet corporation.
The merged company will be Southeast Asia’s largest privately-owned technology enterprise, spanning online shopping, courier services, ride-hailing, food delivery, and other services. By the end of 2021, it intends to go public in Indonesia and the USA. The firms claimed in a joint statement that their previous aggregate worth was $18 billion, based on fundraising in 2019 and early 2020.
The combination of Gojek and Tokopedia, both of which are backed by global heavyweight investors, comes amid increased competition in Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing and food-delivery businesses. Food delivery, e-commerce, and e-payments are all on the rise as a result of the pandemic’s forced confinement.
About Gojek and How it Works?
Gojek (also known as Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa) is a company that creates on-demand smartphone apps for ride-hailing and a number of other services. The company’s app offers services such as transportation and logistics, food ordering and delivery, digital payment, shopping, news, and entertainment, among others, allowing customers to access travel, logistical support, and a variety of other activities with only a few taps on their smartphones.
Gojek started out as a call center in Indonesia in 2010, connecting customers with courier delivery and two-wheeled ride-hailing businesses. GoRide, GoSend, GoShop, and GoFood were the only 4 services available when the app was first released in 2015.
Gojek, which is now valued at $10 billion, has evolved into a super app that offers over 20 different services. GO-Academy, a software development training program, is also part of the corporation.
Gojek – Name, Logo and Tagline
Because the company’s name is derived from the Indonesian word Ojek, which means “motorbike,” the online service’s first logo portrayed a man riding a motorbike.
Gojek’ s Company logo
Michaelangelo Moran, the co-founder, is also noted for designing the firm’s first distinctive logo and branding the entire company, in addition to working as the business’s Brand Director.
Gojek introduced its new company logo on July 22, 2019. Gojek’s s new brand logo, dubbed “Solv,” symbolizes the company’s evolution from a ride-hailing service to a super app that offers a number of clever methods to minimize difficulties.
The Gojek brand was introduced with the tagline ‘Cerdikiawan.’ Cerdik connotes dexterity and a positive sense of time. It reflects, according to the creators, how the company solves problems for Indonesia despite the challenges it faces.
Gojek – Mission and Vision
Gojek’ s mission statement states, “Gojek is dedicated to creating and scaling up positive socio-economic impact on the ecosystem of users, driver-partners, business and micro-small-medium enterprise partners, as well as service providers.“
Gojek – Founder and History
Founded in 2010 with 20 motorcycle riders, the company now has a fleet of over 1 million drivers and, as of May 2018, offers 18 app-based on-demand services. The Gojek app was released in January 2015, and it has approximately 30 million downloads in less than two years. Gojek has teamed up with DBS, Singapore’s largest bank.
Nadiem Makarim – Co-founder of Gojek
Nadiem Makarim, Kevin Aluwi and Michaelangelo Moran co-founded the company Gojek. Nadiem holds degrees from Brown University and Harvard Business School and is an Indonesian native. He spent three years at McKinsey and Co-consulting before founding Gojek, which began as a small phone center with just 20 ojek drivers who ultimately became recruiters.
Nadiem noticed as a frequent ojek user that ojek drivers spend the majority of their time waiting for passengers, while clients waste time walking around looking for an open ojek. Gojek was created to address this issue by creating a platform that allows drivers and riders to connect quickly and earn more money.
Gojek’ s edge in negotiating the local regulatory framework and understanding the local market stemmed from the fact that it was founded and controlled by Indonesians. As a result, they were able to include features in their app that benefit both local drivers and local consumers. In 2017, Gojek brought on board 100 additional engineering graduates from India.
Gojek – Products
Go-Pay is the fourth largest e-wallet service in Indonesia.
GoRide is Indonesia’s first online motorbike taxi service.
Go-Car is a car ride-hailing service.
Customers can use the Go-Blue Bird app to request Blue Bird cabs.
GoFood is an instant meal delivery service in Indonesia with over 250,000 merchants. Go-Food Festival is a Go-Food-branded offline food-court concept that sells food and beverages from Go-Food vendors.
Go-Mart is an app that allows you to shop for groceries at supermarkets that are listed in the Gojek app.
Go-Shop, like Go-Mart, allows users to buy items from stores that aren’t listed in Go-Mart.
Go-Transmit is an on-demand courier service that allows you to send things and documents inside a single delivery zone with no distance restrictions.
For moving heavy products utilizing pickup trucks, single-axle trucks, and single-axle box trucks, Go-Box is identical to Go-Send.
Go-Tix is a mobile app that sells entertainment tickets.
Go-Med is a mobile app that offers a medication delivery service, has teamed up with HaloDoc to develop the “Apotik Antar” functionality.
Customers can request a personal masseuse with Go-Massage.
Go-Clean is a professional house cleaning service that operates through an app.
Go-Glam is a personal hairdresser app that also offers nail care, waxing, and facial services.
Go-Auto is an app-based auto maintenance service that includes car cleaning and emergency repairs.
Go-Pulsa is a phone credit top-up service that operates through an app. Only
Go-Pay can be used to pay for Go-Pulsa.
Go-Bills is a service that allows you to pay your PLN electricity bills, buy PLN electricity tokens, and pay your BPJS insurance premiums all in one place.
Gojek’s loyalty program is called Go-Points. Each transaction earns the user a token, which they can exchange for prizes in the app.
Go-Play & Go-Studio: The company announced plans to enter the Internet content market through Go-Play, a video streaming service, and Go-Studio, a production firm. In September of this year, GoPlay will formally start its service.
Go-Pertamina is an on-demand fuel delivery service in conjunction with Pertamina, Indonesia’s largest oil company. It delivers fuel from the nearest Pertamina gas station to users.
Go-Nearby is a directory service that connects Go-Food merchants with clients of Go-Jek.
Gojek – Business Model
The Gojek business model works on:
Commissions from Companies – Several businesses join Gojek in order to benefit from its seamless operation and increased sales. Gojek, in turn, takes a modest commission on each successful order placed through the app.
The consumers’ commission – Gojek is a one-stop shop for its customers, offering a convenient answer to a wide range of issues. It avoids the hassle of having to switch between apps to meet various demands. Gojek also charges a little price on each order for this service, which users are happy to pay in exchange for Gojek’ s convenient and trustworthy services.
The Drivers’ Commission – For each order they deliver, individual drivers or delivery partners with Gojek pay a tiny commission to the platform. Given the benefits that the platform provides to drivers, a tiny commission fee seems like a good deal.
Gojek’ s adventure has been incredible. Over the last few years, the startup has experienced significant growth.
Gojek reported that the value of its annualized gross transaction value in 2020 will be USD 12 billion, up 10% from 2019. The year 2020 saw an almost threefold increase in GoPay transactions and the pay-later services.
“What is suddenly booming is our online investment feature, probably because people find it easy to access,” said Gojek’s co-CEO Andre Soelistyo.
The company’s grocery service showed a fivefold spike in annualized GTV, indicating that more people are relying on it for shopping during the pandemic. The number of merchants registered with GoFood surged by 80% to 900,000. This year, Gojek did not reveal which vertical contributed the most to its revenue.
Gojek – Partnerships
It established a partnership with Blue Bird, a large Indonesian taxi firm, in 2016. It also launched Go-Car, which expanded ride-hailing from motorcycles to vehicles, and Go-Auto, which provides on-demand mechanic services, in the same year. It was Indonesia’s first online transportation system by August 2016.
It teamed with Google Maps to handle their GPS. Entertainment, Google Play, and MNC Vision are among the other collaborations. Suzuki Finance Indonesia, AEON Credit Service, and Bill Payment PLN, the national electricity supplier, and BPJS Kesehatan, the national health insurance provider.
Gojek is teaming up with Unilever in September 2020. Gojek has partnered with Unilever through the freshly launched GoToko as part of this relationship. GoToko is a B2B digital platform that connects Indonesian MSMEs with global consumer products corporations.
Gojek – Funding and Investors
Date
Round
Amount
Lead Investors
May 10, 2021
Corporate Round
$300M
Telkomsel
Nov 17, 2020
Corporate Round
$150M
Telkomsel
Jun 3, 2020
Series F
$375M
Facebook, PayPal
Mar 10, 2020
Series F
$1.2B
Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Motors, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Visa
Mar 4, 2019
Series F
$100M
PT. Astra International Tbk
Oct 30, 2018
Series F
$920M
Google, JD.com, Tencent
Feb 12, 2018
Series E
$1.5B
Tencent
Aug 4, 2017
Series E
–
–
Aug 4, 2016
Series D
$550M
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Warburg Pincus
Apr 1, 2016
Series C
$170M
–
Gojek – Investments
Date
Organization Name
Round
Amount
May 12, 2021
MPPA
Post-IPO Secondary
IDR144.9B
Mar 9, 2021
LinkAja
Series B
–
Dec 18, 2020
Jago
Post IPO-Equity
$160M
Feb 17, 2020
Blue Bird Group
Corporate Round
$30M
Jan 29, 2020
ZULU
Corporate Round
–
Jul 1, 2019
rebel Foods
Series D
$125M
May 7, 2019
Safeboda
Series B
–
Feb 3, 2019
JD.ID
Venture Round
–
Oct 31, 2018
escapex
Funding Round
–
Aug 10, 2018
PasarPolis
Series A
–
Gojek – Acquisitions
Acquiree Name
About Acquiree
Date
Amount
WePay
WePay is an online payments services provider.
Sep 14, 2020
–
Moka
Moka is an Indonesian fintech startup that focuses on building mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) for small and medium businesses.
Apr 20, 2020
$130M
AirCTO
AirCTO is an AI-powered recruitment platform that helps companies recruit top developers.
Jun 12, 2019
–
Coins.ph
Coins.ph delivers financial services over mobile to people who are currently unserved by traditional banks.
Jan 18, 2019
$72M
Promogo
Promogo is a platform that enables brands to advertise on the body of individually owned vehicles.
Sep 17, 2018
–
PT RUMA
To increase dignity, income, and access for the poor through technology.
Dec 25, 2017
–
Midtrans
Midtrans empowers eCommerce through technology.
Dec 15, 2017
–
Kartuku
Kartuku is a third party processor and payment service provider delivering end-to-end, mission critical payment solutions in Indonesia.
Nov 15, 2017
$50M
LOKET
LOKET is the first event management platform in Indonesia that gives the freedom of selling tickets on one’s own website.
Aug 8, 2017
–
Leftshift Technologies
We build loveable products for iOS and Android
Nov 8, 2016
–
Gojek – Awards and Recognitions
Gojek is the only firm from Southeast Asia to reach Fortune’s list of “56 Companies That Changed the World” for 2017. Gojek was the first Southeast Asian firm to be named twice in Fortune’s Top 50 Firms That Changed The World list, rising to number 11 out of 52 global companies in 2019.
Other international honors include the Top Performer in ASEAN Award in 2017, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and the Superior Products and Services Award in 2016.
Among the national honors are –
Top 15 Most Valuable Indonesian Brands 2019,
Top 3 Brand Performer and Top 3 Most Powerful Transportation/Logistic Brands,
Top 3 Netizen Choice in Online Transportation,
The BrandZ Top 15 Most Valuable Indonesian Brands 2019,
The BrandZ Top 15 Most Valuable Indonesian Brands 2019,
The BrandZ Top 15 Most Valuable Indonesian Brands 2019,
The BrandZ Top 15 Most Valu Best Indonesia Mobile App 2015,
Best Startup Category Work Life Balance,
Most Admired CEO in Indonesia 2017, and
Most Creative in Solving Economic Challenges 2017.
Gojek – Competitors
The top competitors in Gojek’s competitive set are Lyft, Grab, Uber, ComfortDelGro, Gett, MOIA, Ryder, Easy Taxi Services, and Space Neobank.
Grab has dominated the ride-hailing sector in Singapore since the Grab-Uber merger. Grab will have to enhance its service quality now that Gojek, an Indonesian startup, has joined the Singapore market. One of the biggest issues Gojek is facing is a driver shortage, as many self-employed drivers are now listed with Grab.
Gojek is looking forward to organize driver recruitment efforts and offer larger incentives to potential drivers in order to overcome this. Allowing drivers to withdraw money from their virtual wallets is one of them, as is a points system that can be converted into cash and a minimum hourly wage.
Another issue that Gojek is dealing with is a lack of demand. With so many transportation alternatives in Singapore, Gojek will have to rethink its product to stand out from the crowd. To address this, Gojek will need to expand its service offerings, such as its proposal to offer housecleaning services.
Gojek’s quick expansion and market dominance have sparked widespread media attention, as well as criticism from traditional taxi and ojek providers. The Minister of Transportation briefly stopped Gojek and other ride-hailing firms from operating. The restriction was met with widespread opposition, with the hashtag #SaveGojek becoming Indonesia’s most popular trending subject on Twitter.
The ban was removed the same day when President Joko Widodo denounced it, saying that the government should not limit innovation and that the prohibition will have a negative impact on the lives of many Indonesians who rely on Gojek’s services. Budi Karya Sumadi, Indonesia’s Minister of Transportation, enacted a new regulation for online taxis in October 2017. The former PM 26, which regulated the use of private cars for public transportation, was replaced by PM 108.
Gojek – Future Plans
A new ride-hailing service has launched. Gojek plans to expand its operations outside of Indonesia this year, according to co-CEO Kevin Aluwi.
“Over the last few years, we’ve definitely invested relatively smaller amounts in our markets outside of Indonesia. But, we think this is the year where we really want to spread our wings and be a regional and global business,” Aluwi, founder of Gojek, added.
Gojek began as a ride-hailing service in Indonesia in 2010 and has subsequently expanded into food delivery, digital payments, and logistics. It now has a presence in over 200 cities across five Southeast Asian nations, with Indonesia remaining its most important market.
Aluwi also declined to comment on “merger speculations,” saying Gojek’s priority is to grow its business. Gojek is “extremely optimistic” about 2021, he added.
“We do think that 2021 is going to be a growth year and, more importantly, we spent 2020 really investing in a lot of the business and product and operational fundaments, such that profitability and long-term sustainability looks meaningfully better year-over-year,” he said.
Gojek – FAQs
What does Gojek do?
Gojek is a company that creates on-demand smartphone apps for ride-hailing and a number of other services. The company’s app offers services such as transportation and logistics, food ordering and delivery, digital payment, shopping, news, and entertainment, among others, allowing customers to access travel, logistical support, and a variety of other activities with only a few taps on their smartphones.
Which country is Gojek based in?
Gojek is an Indonesian company.
Who founded Gojek?
Nadiem Makarim, Kevin Aluwi and Michaelangelo Moran co-founded the company Gojek.
How does Gojek make money?
On each successful order placed using the app, Gojek charges a tiny commission fee. Gojek is a one-stop-shop for its customers, offering a convenient answer to a wide range of issues. It saves time by eliminating the need to switch between apps to meet different demands.
Which companies do Gojek compete with?
The top competitors in Gojek’s competitive set are Lyft, Grab, Uber, ComfortDelGro, Gett, MOIA, Ryder, Easy Taxi Services, and Space Neobank.
The term “FinTech” is the combination of finance and technology and is referred to the provision of new solutions in the field of finance by IT venture companies. New business models are being created one after another, particularly in the area of B to C services using the Internet. The major difference between these new businesses and traditional finance companies is their thought regarding IT investment.
The use of information technology is generating dramatic changes in financial services making it more easier and efficient to use. Payment services were previously having the players like banks and credit card companies, but now variety of new players have entered the field making it more easier and beneficial for the people of the country. Correspondingly, UPI payments impacted FinTech Industry.
One of the reasons why UPI services has been adopted globally with trust. When you use UPI to pay for things, card information is not shared with merchants, meaning that even if the merchants are hacked, people using UPI payments are safe from leaking information.
Another reason why UPI payments is revolutionizing the Fintech Industry is its hassle free approach to pay and register. All that is required to validate your UPI is simply an authentication of your Aadhar card, your finger prints are scanned and your mobile phone number is verified.
The Indian society have a strong fear of fraud, both in physical retail and online. Although governmental interventions to use digital transfer modes for payments had taken place in India, it is still a very cash-based society. If we take a look at credit card usage, which is a basic form of digital payments, adoption of such payment services are low in the states of India as compared to the US, UK, Japan or South Korea. Building trust in digital payments services is the key.
The take-up of digital payments or any other FinTech services will be about how the FinTech industry can provide customers with comfort and trust, enabling them to feel safe and secure using the service. The use of mobile is already driving the biggest change in financial services history. Mobile is considered as the fastest mass adoption of a technology in history than any other technology. There are already 7.2 billion mobile devices today. With UPI payment services, mobile was only 1% of all transactions in 2010, it is now above 45% in 2019.
CEO of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI), Amitabh Kant in an interview had said that Fintech market in India is likely to expand to $31 billion in 2020 and this owes largely to the use of UPI payments. This is mostly because India is the only country in the world with over a billion mobile connections and bio-metrics, provides an enough scope and opportunity for penetration of fintech technology.
Indian FinTech market is estimated to jump to $140 billion in 2023 and by 2025, Fintech industry valuation is estimated at $150-160 billion.
UPI has made payments easier: Gone are the days, when people used to carry huge bundle of cashes as they traveled or visited a restaurant. With the introduction of UPI payments, it is now become an easier and more secure while travelling.
UPI has made the buying and selling easier through e-commerce: UPI has made the buying and selling through fintech app solution, easier for the e-commerce companies. When a diverse range of devices are connected via the Internet of Things (IoT), it possible to obtain historical data concerning peoples’ daily activities. Using these life-logs, the e-commerce platforms are able to analyse patterns of regular and illicit activity, increasing their ability to detect illicit activity.
Enhancing trust for both customers and businesses: UPI payments has initiated and created a trust between the buyers and sellers. This is due to the privacy that is maintained within the system. UPI transactions are always payer initiated and demands the approval of the payer by an OTP. This is focused on person-to-person (P2P) transfers.
Payments via UPI are extremely quick: Another noteworthy feature of the UPI that has created a huge demand for it in the Fintech industry is that the payments or transactions are done extremely swift. There is no lag and delay which helps in the smooth flow of business.
With UPI you can directly link your account to the BANK and there is no need for virtual wallets: There are many virtual wallet companies like Paypal, PayTM, Mobikwik etc, which requires you to put some money within the virtual wallet, but with the use of UPI payment you can directly use the money from your savings account.
You may also keep a record of your bank transactions through UPI: UPI also enables you to keep a record of the withdrawals and deposits, this saves time for people who would have otherwise visited the bank to update their passbooks. This creates a major benefit for the elderly people who do not need to visit banks and they can transfer whatever amounts they want through an application.
UPI in the last two years has made another innovation where you can request credit through your overdraft (OD) account. This latest value addition eliminates the risk of fraud credit card calls and the risk assessment involved through traditional credit facilities from banks. Thus we can rightly say that a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship has emerged with the use of UPI in the Fintech Industry and we could not have been more proud. It Revolutionised the idea of daily payments and also improvised on the security of transfers.
FAQs
What is UPI full form?
UPI’s full form is Unified Payments Interface.
What is UPI in banking?
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
What is a FinTech industry?
FinTech stands for Financial technology. FinTech is an economic industry that includes companies that use technology to make financial services quick and efficient.
What is UPI Technology?
UPI is a unified interface of NPCI that merges various banking services and wallets payment and other features under one payment system. One UPI ID and a pin are generated. A UPI ID and Pin are used to send and receive money and real-time bank-to-bank payments can be made.
Kavita Thakur
