Mobile Financial News

The other top categories that topped sales were lifestyle and electronics during the recent festive shopping season. Mobile phones, adaptors, and earpods were the top-selling products in the electronics category with brands like Redmi, OnePlus and Boat taking the lead, according to the report. The report noted that 47% sales of beauty products were contributed by consumers in the 18-24 year age group. The report further flagged healthcare and nutrition as categories with greater awareness and demand, underscoring the competition among brands vying for limited space within marketplaces. Somdutta Singh, founder and chief executive at Assiduus Global Inc, said in a statement: “Embracing online shopping as the new norm, the Indian e-commerce sector is poised for remarkable expansion.” He said the surge was led by Gen Z and millennial consumers, indicating that the digitally savvy generation is dominating the online shopping space in India.

Bharti Airtel’s selling and distribution (S&D) costs are nearly four times higher than Reliance Jio’s as the Sunil Mittal-led telecom operator’s premium branding and pricing strategy are vital for acquiring and retaining high-value customers as well as sustaining its 12% higher average revenue per user (ARPU) than the telecom market leader, said analysts. As per company data and CLSA estimates, Bharti Airtel’s S&D expenses are 8% of revenue compared to Jio’s 2%. The global brokerage estimates Bharti Airtel’s S&D and associated costs will hit Rs 15,200 crore in 2023-24, four times higher than Jio’s estimated Rs 3,800 crore. “Bharti’s higher S&D spend and branding efforts are key as its premium branding helps sustain premium ARPU and improve market share,” CLSA said. This, it said, is because India’s second-largest telco follows a unified strategy for all its services under the Airtel flagship brand, which has resulted in quality advantages.

Mayors, governors and others have been forceful advocates for newly arrived migrants seeking shelter and work permits

Six teenagers went on trial Monday in Paris for their alleged roles in the beheading of a teacher who showed caricatures of the prophet of Islam to his class, a killing that led authorities to reaffirm France’s cherished rights of expression and secularism.

TikTok owner ByteDance is slashing hundreds of jobs in its gaming unit, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Monday. The move marks a retreat from the competitive video gaming sector. Nuverse, a video game publisher that is a subsidiary of Beijing-based ByteDance, is currently conducting a round of layoffs that will affect "several hundred people", said the source.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd on Monday said it will raise prices beginning 1 January, setting the stage for similar hikes by rival automakers. The company attributed the move to higher commodity costs and steep inflation, but did not specify the quantum of price hike for specific models. “Steel prices have firmed up a little over the last 3-4 months, which accounts for around 38% of our commodity buying.

Jackbit is a leading crypto casino and sports betting platform that has built and maintained a good reputation since launching in 2022. It is home to over 6,000 casino games cutting across slots, table games, live dealers, as well as having a full sportsbook. The casino offers an enticing welcome bonus – with 50 wager-free spins – and other promotions and bonuses for new and existing players.

insurance sector found its feet in India, the players were following LIC because that was the only example in the country. And LIC did all the processes manually. Hence, in India the insurance sector started to invest in technologies quickly.

Digital wallets from the likes of Apple, Google and WeChat developer Tencent have exploded in popularity but are not captured by Australian payments law.

Crypto exchange Zipmex Thailand has announced the immediate suspension of digital asset trading until early next year. 

Mivi Roam 2 Bluetooth 5W portable speaker is up for grabs at ₹999. It is claimed to offer compact design with a heavy bass for a powerful music experience and houses the 2000mAh rechargeable battery. boAt Stone 352 Bluetooth Speaker The boAt Stone 352 Bluetooth Speaker with 10W RMS stereo sound is priced at ₹1698.It delivers immersive 10W RMS stereo sound and supports IPX7 water-resistant rating.

Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea — as revenues remain a relative straggler to data usage. Case in point: While the just-ended cricket World Cup may have boosted mobile data usage by over 4% sequentially in the December quarter for the top three telcos, that will translate only into relatively modest sequential revenue growth — at best 1% — since consumers invariably have large chunks of unused data, precluding mass upgrades to higher value plans. Furthermore, some digital viewing of World Cup action on smartphones was via WiFi and not mobile data. But the saving grace this quarter is likely to be the festive season and the slew of assembly elections in multiple states (Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, MP and Mizoram), coupled with 5G user additions by Jio and Airtel and extra days during the October-December period. This, analysts, estimate could potentially boost overall data usage levels by almost 7-8% sequentially, which, in turn, could drive around 3-3.5% sequential growth in sectoral India mobile revenues during the current quarter. «The World Cup factor will have pushed up data usage levels north of 4% sequentially in Q3FY24 for the top 3 telcos, but it's likely to at best trigger only around 1% revenue upside on-quarter for them as data packs, typically, tend to be under-utilised, which limits possibility of consumers upgrading to higher value packs,» Prashant Singhal, Emerging Markets, Technology, Media & Telecom leader, EY India, told ET. The top 3 telcos collectively reported 3% and 2.4% sequential growth in India mobile revenues in Q1FY24 and Q2FY24 respectively as per company data.

By Saurabh Sharma

South Korea's prominent metaverse platform, ZEP, has announced a strategic partnership with the global Layer 1 blockchain platform, NEAR Protocol. This collaboration, revealed on November 13, 2023, aims to facilitate user onboarding and enhance the development of ZEP's Web3 capabilities, marking a pivotal step in the evolution of both entities.

Meena is far more comfortable now with hailing an autorickshaw in Bengaluru. Namma Yatri, the Bengaluru-based autorickshaw service built on a digital public goods framework, knows she needs a ride that’s disability-friendly. The autorickshaw driver who goes to pick her up is trained and aware of the needs of persons with disabilities, a factor that allows Meena to be more mobile and independent.

NIA) on Sunday conducted raids across four states in the Pakistan-backed Gazwa-e-Hind module case. The raids were conducted at the premises of suspects in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh, Gir Somnath district of Gujarat, Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh and Kozhikode district of Kerala. The raids revealed links of the suspects, whose premises were searched earlier on the day with Pakistan-based handlers. «These suspects were in contact with the handlers, and were involved in propagating the radical, anti-India idea of Gazwa-e-Hind,» said the agency. The raids led to the seizure of incriminating documents and digital devices like mobile phones, and SIM cards. Several documents were also seized during the NIA crackdown, as part of the ongoing investigations in the case, commonly referred to as the Gazwa-e-Hind case, Patna (Bihar).

Insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is considering the establishment of a fintech unit. LIC has launched a comprehensive digital transformation project named DIVE (Digital Innovation and Value Enhancement) and has enlisted a consultant to lead the initiative, LIC Chairman Siddhartha Mohanty said in an interview with PTI. "Our objective is to get best in class digital initiatives for all our stakeholders, customers, intermediaries, marketing people and everybody through the project DIVE," he said.

As the war in Ukraine grinds into its second winter, a growing number of Russian soldiers want out, audio intercepts obtained and verified by The Associated Press indicate. Russian soldiers speak in shorthand of 200s to mean dead, 300s to mean wounded. The urge to flee has become common enough that they also talk of 500s — people who refuse to fight. These conversations also show clearly how the war has progressed, from the professional soldiers who initially powered Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion to men from all walks of life compelled to serve in grueling conditions. The verified the identities of people in the calls by speaking with relatives and soldiers — some of whom are still at war in Ukraine — and researching open-source material linked to the phone numbers used by the soldiers.

By Max Hunder

Open RAN (open radio access network) technology had promised a lot: It could provide a cheaper alternative to traditional telecom network deployments, challenging the might of the few infrastructure vendors operating in the market. What was expected to be a game changer, though has yet to make much headway in India, except for a few trials and deployments. Experts cite several challenges for the deployment to pick up, but say it would happen in another two-three years.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, took to social media platform X to announce achievement in the mobile industry. In a post, he revealed that the Indian mobile industry has experienced exponential growth, expanding by a remarkable factor of 20 in just nine years. Minister Vaishnaw posted on X, «Met Mobile industry to review progress. Industry has grown 20 times in 9 years.