OnePlus is looking to get owners of Samsung’s flagship smartphones to trade in their handsets against their new OnePlus 2 smartphone.
The company is taking trade ins of the Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+ and the Galaxy Note 5, in return they will give you one of their new OnePlus 2 smartphones.
We’re confident that we’ve created one of the most fantastic smartphones on the market today. So confident that we’re willing to put our money where our mouths are.
Owners of a Samsung flagship phone (Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+, or Note 5) can trade theirs in for the newly launched OnePlus 2, and we’ll donate your old smartphone to Hope Phones!
The company is doing this with only 50 OnePlus 2 handsets and the Samsung Galaxy devices that are traded in will be donated to the charity Hope Phones, you can find out more information at the link below.
Nicolas Toussaint has taken to Kickstarter to promote his new SFC-mini controller in the form of SoundForce which requires €15,000 over the next 30 days to make the jump into production.
SoundForceOffers a hardware controller for the software alternatives of the legendary synthesiser and for Mini-V/Monark plugins and more.
The hardware controller consists of 22 x rotary pots, 21 x tact switches and LEDs, 6 x 6-positions switches and is a USB-powered class compliant device. Watch the video below to learn more from its creator.
The SoundForce SFC-Mini is a USB controller for your Mini-style synthesizer plugins. USB-powererd, class compliant (plug&play) and compatible with Win/Mac/iPad. Get hands-on control of your software synthesizer and bridge the gap between hardware and software!
The SFC-Mini firmware is open source and can be edited and compiled using the Arduino IDE. The compiled .hex file can then be uploaded to the 32u4 chip using the Atmel flip utility on Windows. Future firmware upgrades will be provided as both Arduino project files and compiled hex files. Ideal if you want to customise your controller or learn to program with Arduino. I will give certain backers a video tour of the Arduino code and explain how it works. See the rewards section for more details.
From the start, the goal of SoundForce was to produce locally and to support the economy in my local area. That’s why the SFC-mini is Made in Europe and assembled in the Netherlands. The PCBs are ordered through Eurocircuits in Belgium and fabricated in Germany. The enclosures are made at Fablab Enschede (where I work) and get screenprinted at Duotone in Hengelo (a city nearby). The enclosure material is acrylic plastic made in Italy. Electronics components (LEDs, switches, pots ,… ) are traditionally produced in Asia.
Other features include :
– Support for Ableton, Logic, Pro Tools, Bitwig, Cubase, Reaper and much more – Easy setup with pre-mapped preset for Mini-V/Monark – Custom firmware for Minimonsta (as the MIDI map is fixed in the plugin) – Also compatible with the iMini iPad app – Can be used with any other MIDI-mappable software – Open-source Arduino-based firmware
Jump over to the Kickstarter crowdfunding website via the link below to learn more and make a pledge from $165 for early bird backers.
Adafruit has this week announced the arrival of the new Teensy 3.2 breadboard-friendly development board which has been designed by Paul Stoffregen and PJRC.
The Teensy 3.2 has been created to provide makers and developers with a low-cost 32 bit ARM Cortex-M4 platform, using an adapted version of the Arduino IDE (Teensyduino) or programming directly in C language.
Features of the new development board include :
– 32 bit ARM Cortex-M4 72MHz CPU (M4 = DSP extensions) Here is Freescale’s reference manual for the chip (warning 1227 pages) as well as the Datasheet and User Guide! – 256K Flash Memory, 64K RAM, 2K EEPROM – 21* High Resolution Analog Inputs (13 bits usable, 16 bit hardware) – 34* Digital I/O Pins (21 shared with analog) – 12 PWM outputs – 1 12-bit DAC output – 8 Timers for intervals/delays, separate from PWM – USB with dedicated DMA memory transfers – CAN bus – 3 UARTs (serial ports) – SPI, I2C, I2S, IR modulator – I2S (for high quality audio interface) – Real Time Clock (with user-added 32.768 crystal and battery) – 16 general purpose DMA channels (separate from USB)
The Teensy 3.2 is now available to purchase directly from the Adafruit online store priced at $19.95 follow the link below to learn more information and to make a purchase.
Earlier today we heard that the HTC One A9 had been leaked by mobile carrier Orange in France and now we have some more photos of HTC’s latest Android smartphone.
The press shots of the new HTC One A9 were obtained from the website of Orange France and they give us a good look at the design of this new handset from HTC.
We previously heard that the One A9 would come with a Snapdragon 617 processor from Qualcomm, the device will also come with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of built in storage, this can be expanded by the inclusion of a microSD card slot.
The handset will feature a 5 inch display with a Full High Definition resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and it will come with dual cameras. The front camera on the device is rumored to be a 4 megapixel HTC Ultrapixel camera, the rear camera on the handset is said to be a 13 megapixel camera.
Other specifications in the new HTC One A9 include Bluetooth, WiFi and 4G LTE, the device will come with a 2150 mAh battery and it is expected to be released in a range of colors, which will include gold, silver and grey. HTC are holding a press event on the 20th of October and we will have more information on their new One A9 smartphone then.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently announced that the Tesla Model S would get the Tesla Version 7 software this week, the software update will be rolled out to the model S later today.
One of the new features in the Tesla Version 7 software is Tesla’s new Autopilot system and a number of Model S owners have been testing this out for the company before its release.
One of the testers, Steven Xu has released a video of the new Autopilot system in action on his Tesla Model S, have a look at the video below.
The feature certainly looks interesting from the video, we can expect to see more of these videos over the coming weeks as soon as the software is released.
The update will be made available as an over the air update to the Model S later today, it will also bring a range of other new features to the Model S
Emeric Thoa from developers The Game Bakers has taken to the PlayStation blog this week to reveal more details about the upcoming Furi game that will be launching on PlayStation 4 sometime next year.
As well as revealing details about the new Furi game, Thoa has also published an announcement trailer providing a glimpse of what you can expect from the game that is still currently under development.
Thoa explains little more :
Hello, fighting fans. The story of Furi starts ten years ago, on a plane, as I was headed to a game show. At the time I was a junior designer for a big video game company. Indie development hadn’t really taken off yet, so the idea of making my own console game was nothing more than a pipe dream.
But the person travelling with me asked me what I would do if I could make my dream game, and I told him about this game that would be one long boss fight. A boss fight against an opponent similar to you, not a gigantic creature or a demon. A boss fight that felt like a duel — a tense, exhausting, and utterly rewarding duel.
Furi is the manifestation of this idea that’s stuck with me for the past ten years, as I grew as a designer and set up my own indie studio, The Game Bakers. Furi is a game where you fight for a reason. It’s a game that teases you before the fight, while you walk toward your fate, the same way you would be pumped up and stressed before a boxing match. As you do, you’ll start to piece together about why you’re here and what you’re fighting for.
No specific release date as to when the game will be available next year has been announced as yet, but as soon as more details become available we will keep you updated as always. Check out the announcement trailer below to learn more.
The new Apple TV set top box is due to launch later this month or early next month, we have also been hearing about the Apple TV streaming service over the last few months. Apple has been in talks with the major TV networks regarding their new TV streaming service and now one of the networks has confirmed the existence of Apple’s TV streaming plans.
The news that Apple is working on a new TV streaming service was confirmed by the Chief Executive of CBSin a recent interview with Bloomberg.
CBS CEO, Les Mooves told Bloomberg that the Apple TV streaming service is in the works and that Apple is having discussions with content providers about the service, he also confirmed that CBS has had discussions with Apple about the service.
“Apple is having conversations with everyone about doing their own streaming services,” Moonves said in an interview Wednesday on Bloomberg TV. “We have had those conversations, as have the other networks. Do I think something will happen? Probably, but I do not know when.”
We had previously heard rumors that the service would launch this year, although back in August it was rumored that it wont launch until next year. Apple is apparently looking to provide regional shows on its new TV streaming service as well as national shows from the major networks.
Exactly how the service will work remains to be seen, it is expected to launch in the US at first and then Apple will have to work out content deals in other countries, this could take them some time. If the new service does launch in the US early next year, we would expect it to launch in the UK a few months later, unless Apple is able to work out the deals with the various company’s involved for a global launch.
BlackBerry Priv is going to be the company’s first handset which will ship with Android as its operating system. The company has seen its fair share of troubles over the past few years, but it seems they are ready to adopt Google’s Android operating system.
Recently, the company teased some information about the upcoming BlackBerry Priv, as well as kicked off pre-registration for the device, in case you’re interested in getting your hands on it.
The company revealed, as it can be seen from the images we’ve seen, that the handset will come with a physical keyboard hidden by SmartSlide technology. There’s a 5.4-inch dual curved screen which we’ve seen before in the Galaxy line up, but rumors suggest it will come with a resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels. The company also revealed that the handset will feature a 3,410 mAh battery to make sure it can provide enough juice for the handset.
The handset is certified by Schneider-Kreuznach, and it will also come with the exclusive DTEK™ byBlackBerry warning system app to enhance privacy.
Other features as per rumors includes 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, and 4G LTE connectivity.
Head over to the link below if you’d like to pre-register for the handset. We’ll update you as soon as we get to hear anything more about the launch and availability of the handset.
‘My father told me I could do anything I wanted to do. I would go up to him and say I wanted to be a doctor and he would go, you can do that, I would say I wanted to be a mathematician and he would say, you can do that. No matter what I said, he said I could do that, so I grew up with this inner confidence that I could do whatever I wanted to do’.
Sandy Carter
A child nurtured in such an inspiring environment would certainly grow up with the strong conviction that she has destiny on her side. The person we are speaking about has broken all norms for women in technology. Meet Sandy Carter, who is the GM, Cloud Ecosystem & Developers at IBM.
We caught up with Sandy during her recent visit to India. She talks about technology in a way that inspires the layperson to embrace it rather than run from it. Talking about some of emerging global trends, she points to Cloud as being one of the most important. The Cloud, she says, is completely changing and revolutionising startups and entrepreneurs, as it eliminates a huge part of the initial costs on infrastructure and technology.
‘Mobile first’ is the trending buzz word today, but Sandy says for her, it is mobile only and attributes this to the way smartphones are taking off. Next on her list is cognitive, so computer services that are not just programmatic but that think and learn and really help you to get to that next level. Internet of things and wearables follow, before finally concluding with data.
Speaking about initiatives for women within her organisation, Sandy mentions an initiative called ‘black hut’. This is a unique initiative where women entrepreneurs from all over the world are invited to Silicon Valley. They are housed together and taught about funding, networking, and given confidence on their solutions. And then these 30 plus women go out and attack the market.
She also talks about helping young girls who code and the kind of impact it has had. She says, this year in the history of Stanford, there are more women who have chosen Computer Science as their major. She also talks about Bluemix Girls Night Out, a programme that is held the world over, including India, where women are taught about Cloud and how Cloud can empower women to move forward. She emphasises though these are more technical, they hone in on women leadership skills. She also highly recommends a book called ‘Career Hacking’ for women.
Quoting a survey, she says there are three times as many women developers in India as compared to the United States. And says there is a lot of passion and energy in India to do things here and are producing some great mentors which will help the next generation.
She leaves us with a message:
‘Keep the passion up and going, take a risk, get out there and be bold in your ideas and your passion and never ever give up’.
Watch the video for more insights from Sandy Carter.
Hyperlocal is the next frontier for e-commerce companies to bring massive scale and deliver goods instantly. While we see the rise of on-demand startups like Grofers, Peppertap and Jugnoo among others, e-commerce giants Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and Paytm see hyperlocal as the next avenue to accelerate scale.
Flipkart announced ‘Flipkart Nearby’ to cater to hyperlocal needs like grocery, FMCG goods this month and aspires to offer supermarket experience to customers in Bengaluru. Amazon launched ‘Amazon Kirana’ to deliver grocery and essentials in Bengaluru within two to four hours while Snapdeal is piloting Snapdeal Instant in select cities. It also led USD 36 million round in on-demand grocery platform Peppertap to ramp up its hyperlocal stake.
More recently, Paytm rolled out its hyperlocal platform and expects half of its sales coming from hyperlocal business by 2016. So why have these e-commerce majors turned hyper towards hyperlocal space? Indian digital commerce businesses are trying to emulate Alibaba’s consumer facing marketplace Taobao which leverages network of retailers for product procurement and delivers using thelogistics arm of Alibaba.
Emulating the Taobao model
On the lines of Taobao’s B2C marketplace Tmall, Indian peers are eyeing the USD 18-billion hyperlocal market. Currently, after order confirmation from consumer side, these companies collect the product from the warehouse and then ship it to the customer using third party or their own logistics.
However, it’s easier for them to collect goods from retailers close to the delivery address and fulfill it. Importantly, hyperlocal fulfillment weeds out pain related to intra-city logistics. Last-mile delivery becomes the only focus for e-commerce companies while dealing with existing retailers to procure and deliver goods.
Money chasing hyperlocal space is a big concern for e-commerce majors
This year, hyperlocal startups have outnumbered all other sectors in terms of raising VC money. According to YourStory research,hyperlocal startups have secured over USD 170 million risk capital from investors so far and this appears to be a concern for these unicorns. Until this year, only e-commerce majors had theability to raise rounds over USD30-million mark.However, Grofers and Peppertap had closed rounds to the tune of USD 40 million. Peppertap had secured USD 36 million last month and Grofers is in advance talks with Softbank for a USD 100-million round. Jugnoo is also expecting to gobble abigger round for expansion.
Experts believe that e-commerce majors will either invest in growth-stage hyperlocal startups or acquire them to make their business attractive for more VC capital. We have witnessed the first strategy by Paytm and Snapdeal. The former had pumped in money in Chandigarh-based Jugnoo while the latter had recently invested in Peppertap. According to some reliable sources, Grofers was in talks with Flipkart for possible acquisition but it didn’t work out.
On the lines of VC funding, we see there is a sense of fear of missing outamong e-commerce players as far as hyperlocal sector is concerned. E-commerce majors have realised the potential of hyperlocal and are now ramping up their stakes via investment and acquisition.
Growth stagnation and massive scale are driving e-commerce majors towards hyperlocal
While e-commerce still has to find strong inroads in smaller cities, its growth in metros and Tier I cities is ushering in stagnation. This seems to be one of the biggest drivers for e-commerce companies to go for hyperlocal segment. Hyperlocal startups are scaling up quickly and could be the next sector to bring massive scale to e-commerce majors. According to an industry estimate, the current market opportunity of the space is about USD 16 billion, much bigger than e-commerce and it’s expected to grow to USD 80 billion by 2020.
Post offices in Madhya Pradesh will sell mobile phones as part of postal department’s Digital India initiative. The department has joined hands with state-run operator BSNL and a Noida based private company, Pantel Technologies, to sell mobile phones through its offices in the state. Chief Postmaster General of Madhya Pradesh Circle M E Haq handed over the first mobile phone handset to a buyer, launching sale of mobile phones from head post offices.
In line with ‘Digital India’ initiative, India Post and BSNL have entered into an agreement with Pantel Technologies Private Limited to sell Penta Bharat Phone PF 301 through the post offices, an official said. The phone comes with 1999 minutes of free talk time from BSNL over a period of 18 months. It is also priced at Rs 1999. To start with, these phones will be sold in all head post offices and some other major post offices in the state. The initiative will cover other post offices in due course.
Plans are afoot to launch couple of low priced smart phones by Penta in the next few weeks, the official added. Last week, the postal department started selling mobile phones through its head offices in the state of Himachal Pradesh. The launch came after a pilot sale in four southern states, which the officials claimed was a big success.
Over 70,000 phones were sold in a period of less than a year, and the project was being launched in other states too, a postal department official had said. Penta PF 301 is a keyboard-operated phone that has several attractive features like 2.8 inch wide screen, dual sim, FM radio, audio player, torch, and camera and is internet enabled.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was on Wednesday all praise for Indian innovation, saying a lack of resources in the country is leading to greater creativity, which she saw recently in Bengaluru and described the city as the “Silicon Valley of India”. Stating that she was immensely “impressed” with the innovations coming out of India in general and Bengaluru in particular, Merkel said while German researchers are great, those in India are very creative and innovative.
“Only a few days ago, I was in the Silicon Valley of India in Bangalore. I had the opportunity to visit your (Bosch) research centre there. Researchers here in Germany are probably wonderful and great, but those in India are quite creative and innovative”, Merkel said after inaugurating Bosch GmBH’s integrated research campus in Renningen. She went onto add that “sometimes when you don’t have anything to go by really, that makes you more creative.”
Stating that she was very impressed with the engineers of Bosch’s Bengaluru facility, she said, “I was looking at what they’ve invented in their spare time and was quite impressed. For example a medical equipment that allows you to control your eyesight”. As part of her state visit to India earlier this month, Merkel had flown to Bengaluru along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Bosch’s research centre.
The Bengaluru centre houses 12,000 researchers working on a host of technologies including the Internet of Things (IoT), and image processing among others. This is the second biggest R&D facility for Bosch after Germany. Bosch global chairman Volkmar Denner said the company has invested 310 million euros in the Renningen facility spread over 100 hectares near Stuttgart, Germany’s fifth biggest city that also houses the group’s headquarters.
The Bosch researchers at the new facility housing 1,700 associates from various disciplines, will be working to find solutions in electromobility with work on batteries, improving the internal combustion engine and automated driving, among other things in an environment designed to make them work like a startup, he said. He said the company hopes to drive an automated car on an autobahn or an expressway by 2020. It invested 5 billion euros or around 10 per cent of its sales in R&D last year.
Merkel exhorted German firms to invest more in R&D, saying target of raising research spends to 3 per cent in the Euro Zone is possible only if they invested more. Nearly two-thirds of the R&D spends on an absolute basis come from private sector while the state contributes only one-third. The state has also sufficiently funded educational institutions to help enable research, Merkel said, replying to a complaint by Denner, who blamed the Germans for not being courageous enough to start businesses.
When it comes to traveling, some people just choose a place and go on a solo trip. For the less adventurous ones there are always traveling sites which organise trips and help people travel in groups. Adventures365.in is India’s biggest marketplace for adventure sports and activities. What sets it apart from other ventures is their focus on safety and their approach to adventure activities with a tech perspective. Instead of starting an adventure company themselves, they believe in leaving the work to experts and focus on bringing them together on one platform.
Advetures365 was started by Rohan Khedkar and Omkar Methavade, who is currently a final year engineering student in Pune. Rohan has over five years of IT experience and was working in Infosys before he was bitten by the startup bug. Rohan focuses on the technical and design aspects of the company. Omkar is the marketing guy and has ample experience in organising adventure-based events which comes handy in taking care of the operations and talking to organisers. Rohan says,
“We started pondering over the idea in the month of June 2014, and spoke to organisers and customers to see the problems they are facing on both sides. We did all the background study to see what we can offer in terms of technology and solutions. For two to three months all we did was a background check and after that we worked on technology and on Dec 25, 2014, we launched in the market.”
In January 2014 their idea got selected for Tata First Dot – a competition for the startups. The team was selected as one of the top ten startups in 2014.
From Left – Omkar Methavade, Rohan Khedkar, Deep Upadhye – Cofounders, Adventures365
The problem with adventure organisers
At present, they have an eight member strong team for interacting with organisers. Prior to on-boarding an organizer, the team does a proper background check by traveling and attending events by adventure organisers to check on the quality before they list them on the marketplace.
The adventure tourism sector is heavily unorganised. The prices for any activity are decided by people organising the sport. With no source of credible information for outsiders, experiential blogs by people who have been there remain the only source of information about the particular spot.
While big resorts have their own partnerships with adventure companies and some of them also own these companies, small operators do not have any way to reach out to people and they are only dependent on inbound inquiries and requests. Most adventure companies do not even have an online presence and among those who have it is barely noticeable.
The solution
Adventures365 is helping these players to get noticed by helping them list and give them a platform to showcase their offerings. This also helps customers with information well in advance and thus giving them a worry-free travel. The startup helps travelers to search for different adventure activities. Following which they can select and compare between different organisers and places in which they are interested.
One can choose events from around 25 different categories. The listing is exhaustive and contains almost every adventure sport which is carried out in India, be it from rafting to hot air ballooning or night treks to waterfall rappelling and everything in between.
The company has categorised adventures into five elements and there is a sixth element as well which contains other tours like experiential safaris or bike rides. The five elements are air, earth, fire, water, and sky. All adventure activities which are done in a specific sphere come into the respective category, for example, paragliding comes under the air element. Trekking comes under earth section.
Why marketplace model instead of being an organiser
Taking about the reason why they chose to be a marketplace instead of being an organiser, Rohan says,
“In being an organiser there are a lot of issues. As an organiser, we can’t provide many adventures to people. And we don’t come from a background where we can do this. We come from a technology background. When we are a marketplace, we can unite all the organisers and provide a better experience to our customers with the help of a marketplace. Presently, there are very few companies which are working as a marketplace.”
The company allows only those organisers who have registered with the government and have been licensed to perform that activity. This is done to make sure that the safety and security of the customers are of paramount importance and is taken very seriously.
Adventure sports are extreme activities and when people go for activities like skydiving and scuba diving, the probability of accidents is high when compared to other forms of leisure. At present, the company charges a percentage from organisers depending on the type of package selected. They do not charge anything from the customers.
Experience is not just another word here
To make sure that the experience does not take a backseat, the company does not pay the organisers until the event gets completed. If there is a cancellation or any other issues, it is taken care by the Adventure365 team. Rohan adds,
“In case of cancellation we deduct certain charges based on when the customer is cancelling his participation if it is last minute or some time prior to it. But if the organiser is cancelling the event we refund the full amount. There is always one representative going from Adventures365. For example, if there is a group of 20 people going with us for the event and in case there is something wrong, he can communicate with the organiser and make sure it is rectified.”
Launched in December 2014, Adventures365.in had gained reasonable traction. In their 10 months of operation, they have served 1000+ customers from independent travellers to corporate from different cities ranging from Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi. They have 150+ adventure destinations with more than 500+ events listed by more than 30+ organisers across India. The company is currently working on their mobile app which will help ease the process for event organisers.
At present, they get around 40–50 bookings every month, with an average size of around six people per booking. The company is completely bootstrapped and is looking for funding.
Last few years have seen many people starting up in adventure and experiential travel space. There are players in the market such as CrazyYatra, Thrillophilia, and others. However, considering the amount of opportunities in this space there is a lot of scope for more players to enter.
Many Indians from traditional families spend a lot of time, energy and money planning and organising poojas in their houses. MuhurtMaza, which means ‘my auspicious time’ in Marathi, is trying to simplify this process. According to the founder of this Pune-based startup Sughosh Sowale, the company lets customers book pooja packages online.
The market size of this sector in India is almost USD 30 billion. That, essentially, means every Indian (approximately one billion of us) spends an average of USD 30 or Rs 1,800 to please the Gods and keep our ancestors happy!
When Sughosh conceived the idea five years ago, he was newly married and wanted to host a satyanarayan pooja in his house. He realised the difficulty in finding a guruji (priest) to perform the prayers and the labour involved in buying all the things needed for the event (called samagri).
“My wife and I were both working, and we wanted to perform this pooja, but we were in a new place and just didn’t have the time to do it. I realised there would be many other couples like us, so I wanted to start this online platform,” he says.
Rewinding back a little
Sughosh started MuhurtMaza in November last year. One of his first customers, Nilesh Gudhe, was so excited about the concept that he wanted to join the venture too. He came on board as CTO, around six months ago.
These two partners are not the usual ‘fresh-outta-college’ entrepreneurs. They each have over 15 years experience in sales and management. Sughosh worked with various FMCG and consumer brands in India, while Nilesh spent a lot of time in TCS, gaining experience in various aspects of technology, business strategy and fund raising.
The initial few months were all about getting priests to register on the platform. “Getting verified priests on to the platform was the most difficult part. I personally went from temple to temple, trying to make them understand how useful this would be for them,” adds Sughosh.
The company currently has over 300 priests on the website. They are not all Marathi. There are Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu priests too.
Booking a pooja on MuhurtMaza
Once the customer selects the ceremony they want to conduct out of the 100-odd options on their website, and picks a date and muhurt for the event, everything else is taken care of by the team at MuhurtMaza.
The ten-member team gets to work, and picks the most relevant priest for the occasion. They have readymade lists for the items needed for everypooja, which they share with both the priest and the customer.
The cost of the pooja packages range between Rs 1,000 and Rs 30,000, depending on the nature of the ceremony and the items involved.
The company’s revenue model is based on commissions from every ceremony booked on the platform. This number can vary between five and 10 percent. The remaining amount is transferred to the priests.
Before the payment gateway was integrated, it was just a marketplace for priests. “Initially, we used to just connect a priest and visit the venue after the event to collect our commissions. That got a little difficult as the number started increasing. Which is why we integrated the payment gateway on our platform.”
MuhurtMaza, which is bootstrapped as of now, has helped organise around 150 ceremonies in the last quarter. It is currently live in eight cities across Maharashtra including Pune, Nasik and Nagpur and will be expanding to 25 cities over the next six months.
YourStory’s take
Though this is not a unique idea – there are others like Where’s My Pundit, Super Pandit – it might work if such startups all focus on different geographic locations. A little more customisation and sorting options may go a long way for them. For example, I want to book a ceremony called mukhe bhaat in Bengali; I know it is called Annaprashnam in Sanskrit but am not sure if they will send me a Bengali priest (as per my need) or a Marathi priest.
In the near future, I foresee this segment booming and multiple platforms like these spawning across the country. It will be similar to the matrimonial websites boom sometime in the late 90s.
Is India ready to tread the app-only route that e-commerce majors are eyeing?
Introduction
The past few years have witnessed an explosion of smartphones. India and China, with their huge base, have transformed themselves into mobile-first market economies with m-commerce.
In a first, Myntra took a bold step to become mobile-only (app-only) business, foregoing a good chunk of revenue from its website (e-commerce). Flipkart, its parent company, wanted to follow suit and become app only in September, 2015. But the huge business risk coupled with negative comments over Myntra’s app-only policy on Twitter and on other social media made it review its stand and put the concept on hold. With Big Billion days around the corner, Flipkart wanted to bring app again into the foreground by limiting its most awaited sale to the app only. Amazon is also following the same strategy.
Advantages of app
In the startup world, customer acquisition and the cost associated with it are extremely crucial. Browsers and their associates source it with minimum effort, posing a potential threat to e-commerce startups. By going ‘app-only’, e-commerce companies can prevent browsers from analysing its customers.
Apps ensure targeted marketing based on customer tastes and needs. Companies can constantly engage and provide personalised notifications to the audience.
Most important advantage of the app is creating a captive market where companies can sell to customers without bothering about competition. This thwarts the operations of price comparison websites which improve market efficiency by web crawling or through feeds.
Apps’ statistics – Flipkart’s lead
A Nielsen report talks about a stagnant trend of around 26.7 apps used per month in US for the past three years. Which means, all the 1.6 million apps in Apple’s and Android’s app stores have to compete for that dream spot in 27 apps.
With such stiff competition, rapid smartphone adaptation and high traffic percentage from mobiles (75 per cent for Flipkart), there is a real need for any app/company to drive the consumer behaviour to use its app now. Flipkart, because of its inherent advantages, could take a huge lead as compared to its rivals Amazon and Snapdeal. It has high penetration (35 per cent) and engagement (60 minutes a month). Amazon has 17 per cent penetration and 37 minutes per month, whereas Snapdeal with 20 per cent penetration and 35 minutes per month take second and third positions.
So, Flipkart is in the ideal position to shift to app-only format and reap the benefits of first mover advantage in the long run. Amazon and Snapdeal cannot risk it because of three factors namely, less traffic percentage, penetration and engagement.
Every e-commerce firm’s dream
To obtain a stronghold in the newly shifting market domain, every e-commerce dream mission would be to find a permanent place in every smartphone in India.
In order to do that, Flipkart needs to be the pioneer in changing consumer behavior by instilling the habit of using its app among customers earlier in the game, thereby securing first mover advantage. Flipkart was ready (by trying to be app-only in September) to take the risk by foregoing present revenue from one medium (website), in order to gain future revenue from another medium (app) as a part of its long-term strategy.
Following can be some of the steps in order to achieve the mission:
Flipkart tried to shove the app down the users’ throats without their consent. With all the hue and cry around Myntra’s app-only strategy, Flipkart understood that stick approach wasn’t working. Soon it tried the carrot approach in terms of Big Billion Days, whereby it incentivises customers to turn to app. Effectiveness of this strategy is now under test with the ongoing BBD.
Future of app – cues from TV and real estate
The most important characteristic for the app to be successful is engaging. So today, if we are talking about a good app, it’s all about engagement, engagement, engagement! The good old analog cable TV was very similar in nature. We had the freedom to set the TV channels according to our priorities and interest, which are driven mostly by content and engagement.
Soon, as TV became one of the mainstream media, with highest engagement among all mediums, rapid commercialisation hit the TV industry. Even the TV channel numbers were monetised. So, to place a channel at a particular slot or channel number, broadcasters need to pay money to MSOs or local cable operators.
To benefit from its open source Android, Google pre-installed Google apps which cannot be uninstalled without rooting the phone, which will lose warranty in the first place. Most phone makers pre-install their own apps in addition to those of Google’s. Recently, OnePlus officially declared that pre-installing apps for companies can generate additional revenue apart from its core business.
I think it wouldn’t be long before some India-focussed smartphone manufacturer pre-installs Flipkart or any other e-commerce app on its mobile (I know some smartphones bought off Flipkart had pre-installed Flipkart app, but that’s very few). This strategy can contain low memory issues of smartphones and high uninstall rates of apps, which are persistent in Indian market.
In future, it’s possible to have fixed visibly prominent slots in your smartphones which can be monetised. Or just as there are corner houses and prime locations in real estate, there are home screen apps which are more accessible with a click of a button.
