Daily News Digest- 28th Nov'14

Thought of the Day:

Today in History:

Following made the Headlines:

India:

• E-commerce Players Gear up for Google's Online Shopping Bonanza: Many online sites are gearing up for a surge in business with a fortnight of discounts during the ongoing Google-led online shopping festival followed by Black Friday and Cyber Monday next week. The affiliate sites are creating `how-to' guides for best deals in different categories, anticipating a four-fold rise in traffic and a similar jump in revenue. Sites that offer price comparisons, couponing and best deals may come up on top by creating `how-to' guides during the GOSF (Google Online Shopping Festival). Smaller e-commerce merchants also gain from the rising traffic, given that they offer niche products and comparable discounts. Typically , GOSF aims to tap firsttime shoppers, which constituted a large chunk -nearly 30% -during the 2013 festival. “This year, we have five times the number of merchants against when we started GOSF in 2012. Though there are 250 million internet users, only 35 to 40 million users shop online. Our idea is to get more and more first-time shoppers to experience this,“ says Nitin Bawankule, industry director for e-commerce, local and classifieds at Google India. “While Black Friday and Cyber Monday are not Indian phenomenon, we have created a GOSF section specifically on Desidime to help shoppers. Diwali and GOSF make up nearly 30% of our annual revenues and last year the traffic went up by 120% during GOSF. We will be adding 20 additional servers this year in anticipation of the volumes,“ says Mehul Jobanputra, CEO and cofounder of Desidime.

• Amazon ups the ante, looks to acquire Jabong: In what could well become the biggest acquisition in the India's e-commerce space, Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, is planning to buy Gurgaonbased fashion and lifestyle etailer Jabong in a deal possibly worth millions of dollars. Industry experts, who did not wish to be named, said the deal will give the USbased retailer a fillip in India's e-tailing industry, which is estimated to touch $15 billion by 2016 from $3.5 billion at present, according to a recent Google report.“Amazon wants to go after the apparel and fashion business that Jabong has built up meticulously ,“ said a person familiar with the matter. According to a WGSN (trend forecasting company) report, apparel as a proportion of online spending in India had grown by around 18% from $263 million in 2012 to $310 million in 2013, as con sumers slowly started gaining confidence in e-tailers' better offerings. After Flipkart and Myntra, Jabong is the largest player in the fashion and lifestyle space and has been steadily adding global brands like G-Star Raw and River Island to its kitty.

• By April, India to Lubricate the Way It does Business: By April 2015, starting a new business in India would no longer require budding entrepreneurs to make multiple trips to myriad government offices, with the Narendra Modi government moving to an online approval system for more than 200 permits required by different industries from central and state government departments. The new system for registering and seeking clearances for any business would allow entrepreneurs to apply for and track the status of all permits and licences online to start with, and eventually on mobile phones, in line with PM Modi's vision of bringing governance to people's fingertips. This initiative could be highlighted when Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth meets India Inc on Friday with the commerce and industry secretaries to discuss measures to improve the ease of doing business. India is currently ranked 142nd on the World Bank's index for this and the government is commit ted to improve ted to improve this to 50. Promising to simplify business processes and regulations in six months, the PM had told US businesses in October: “Whatever may have been India's ranking on the ease of doing business index, I have now told officials that I don't want to be so low on this ranking.“ PM Modi told US businesses in October that he had given officials “specific parameters to improve quickly“. While the Modi administration has stoked a revival in investor interest in India, foreign investors spooked by policy uncertainties and the country's notorious red tape are still looking for tangible signs of change in the business environment. This initiative could be a key enabler in changing the narrative, feel experts. “The cabinet secretariat is prodding all ministries and state governments to complete the exercise by March 2015, so that anyone setting up a new venture in any sector or state can apply for the requisite permits and even pay fees online,“ said a senior government official aware of the development. The proposed national portal for registrations and clearances would also free up entrepreneurs from the guesswork associated with seeking clearances in India's cumbersome and uncertain bureaucratic landscape, a system that spawns brokers and agents who charge for helping out aspiring businessmen.

• For Indians, Luxury is Quality not Price: Indian luxury buyers seem to have evolved faster than their peers in China, Singapore, Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines as they tend to value free time, unique experiences and the story of a brand while making purchases and don't recklessly pursue materialistic possessions. terialistic possessions. A new study by VML Qais, a WPP Group company , has found that Asian consumers are “mindful of personal spiritual development as well as the happiness of the greater good.“ Interestingly, 70% of the 4,000 Indian respondents said luxury had nothing to do with money , but the amount of free time one had, compared with 59% among the Chinese and 68% of the Koreans in the 1835 age group who thought likewise. Among the older lot (36-55-year-olds with more money and decision-making power), 58% of the Indians valued time over money , compared with 49% of the Chinese. The survey found that 80% of Indians in the 18-35 age bracket focused on the fine quality of luxury products rather than the price tag, compared with 78% and 63% in Indonesia and Singapore, respectively. “While China has seen more luxury power brands in the last decade, it has been a more recent phenomenon in India.Indian consumers are seeking more value than labels,“ said Tripti Lochan, chief executive of VML Qais This could be attributed to the fact that Indian consumers don't buy into the luxury segment like the Chinese, she said.

• Britannia bites digital pie to push cookie: After colas and burgers, biscuits are the latest in the fast moving consumer goods ( FMCG) category to consider a test launch on e- commerce platforms, ahead of their entry into physical stores. Britannia Industries, the bakery and dairy major, has tied up with e- tailer Amazon India for a pilot launch of Good Day Chunkies, anew chocolate chip cookie, for 15 days. The offer is currently on and closes on December 5, after which the product goes to offline ( normal retail) stores. Britannia is the first biscuit company in the country to leverage e- commerce for brand promotions, ahead of competitors such as Parle Products and Mondelez. Speaking to BusinessStandard, the company’s marketing director, Ali Harris Shere, said: “ Digital is emerging as a big platform and we want to be the first one to explore it, rather than being a follower.” This launch comes on the heels of another one, Nutrichoice Heavens, also a super- premium offering, earlier this month by the company. The current product is Britannia’s third cookie launch in three months. In September, the company had marked its entry into the mass cookie space with Tiger Butter Krunch. Shere said Amazon had positioned the new product in its gourmet and speciality foods store.

• ITC to Invest Rs 9k Cr to Up Hotel Count: ITC plans to invest about ₹ 9,000 crore in the next three to four years to expand its hotel portfolio to 150 hotels, said Nakul Anand, executive director at the tobacco-to-hospitality conglomerate. ITC Hotels, one of the largest hotel chains in the country, currently operates 102 hotels. As part of its ambitious expansion plan, on Thursday it opened the 104-suite resort ITC Grand Bharat near Delhi where it spent ₹ 2-2.5 crore per room.` “We will have a total of 150 hotels in the next three to four years, of which 33 hotels will be under the managed Fortune hotels brand,“ Anand said. “The My Fortune brand will have six fully-owned hotels across Coimbatore, Guntur (a major tobacco district), Bhubaneswar, Srinagar, Kathmandu and another undecided location.“ He said ITC will launch five other hotels -in Mahabalipuram, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Colombo -by 2018. “Last week, we also did the ground breaking for our Colombo One hotel that will (₹ 1,855 crore) and cost $300 million will be ready by 2018,“ Anand said.

• Dell Keen on Expanding India Operations: Prasad: Computer maker Dell is keen on expanding its manu facturing facility in the country, telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said after meeting a senior executive of the US major. Speaking to reporters after meeting Amit Midha, Asia Pacific head of the American tech-firm, Prasad said, “Dell is very interested in electronic manufacturing.They have a facility here which they want to expand. They also want to work on Digital India programme which is now a buzz word across the world.“ Dell invested $30 million in a manufacturing facility at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

• Startup incubator goes mobile-first: GSF, the twoyear-old Gurgaon-based technology startup incubator behind Little Eye Labs, which was acquired by Facebook, is morphing into a dedicated mobile accelerator and plans to launch more specialized vertical programmes going forward. GSF M-Accelerator, as it's being called, will train and fund 10-15 Indian mobilefirst startups beginning next year across two batches annually. Spread over four months, the selected batches will spend time in India, the Silicon Valley , New York and Singapore. GSF Accelerator, in its earlier avatar, had funded 33 startups across three batches since its inception. “We will not do internet and generic accelerator any more but will concentrate on launching more specialized accelerators,“ GSF founder Rajesh Sawhney told TOI. In ternet as we know it is over, it's all about mobile internet now, he said. And mobile has a new language with new abilities to create superior value for consumer, especially around localization and social features, he said. Smartphones have more processing power, more powerful operating systems, all of which can be leveraged to create new apps and platforms to solve consumer problems in a unique way , he said.

International: 

• Tesco executive under suspension leaves company: The BBC has learned one of the Tesco executives suspended by the company over the £260m profit misstatement has left the company. Tesco suspended eight executives after its announcement on 22 September that the company may have overstated its profits. Tesco declined to comment on the departure of the executive. The business is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office over the guidance error. An internal investigation is being carried out by the accountancy firm Deloitte and law firm Freshfields. Tesco's chief executive Dave Lewis, who took over from former boss Philip Clarke at the beginning of September, made clear that the suspensions of the executives were not "disciplinary or an admission of guilt". 

• Mulberry Taps Johnny Coca as Creative Director: Céline's Johnny Coca will join Mulberry as creative director in July, writing a fresh chapter for the British brand, which has witnessed a dramatic 18 months. Godfrey Davis, Mulberry's chairman and chief executive officer, said Coca, a star in the luxury accessories design world, is "the perfect fit" for the business. Following the announcement, Mulberry's share price rose 6.7 percent to 8 pounds, or $12.60, on the London Stock Exchange, and it ended the day up 2.3 percent, closing at 7.67 pounds or $12.07. WWD first reported that Coca was the front-runner for the job of creative director on Oct. 17.

• Wal-Mart Dismisses 30 China Execs: Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, said it dismissed about 30 senior executives in China amid a restructuring in Asia that includes store closures in Japan and management changes in India. The departure of the executives, including directors and more senior staff, is to streamline and simplify the business and is "consistent with actions taken over the last several months," Wal-Mart's China spokesman Ray Bracy said Wednesday in an e-mail reply to questions. A small number of the employees have mutually agreed to leave the business, he said. The move comes amid a management shakeup in the U.S., where Wal-Mart announced the departure of its U.S. merchandising chief on Nov. 25. The company also reappointed Scott Price as its Asia chief this month as the retailer faces headwinds in its biggest markets within the region.

• Printemps Unveils Holiday Windows: Burberry is the theme of the holiday windows at the Printemps flagship on Boulevard Haussmann. The store decorations include an illuminated façade featuring a 13-foot-tall animation of a little boy and his teddy bear who journey from the Burberry flagship in London to Printemps.

• Hearts on Fire Launches in Mainland China: Jewelry giant Chow Tai Fook has opened its first Hearts on Fire store in Mainland China. Located on Shanghai’s Nanjing Road, the boutique marks the start of an ambitious plan to open 300 stores by 2020. Chow Tai Fook, which acquired the Boston-based diamond specialist for $150 million in June, will rollout new outlets in Nanjing, Beijing, Hainan and Hong Kong by the end of this fiscal year. An additional landmark opening on New York’s Madison Avenue is slated for spring 2015. “We have a new target segment: the next generation of sophisticated Chinese woman, who is younger, independent and international, with a strong global view,” said Adrian Cheng, director and member of the board of Hearts on Fire. “We have every confidence in the growth of the premium design segment in China,” he added.

Tech:

• Tech Cos Dig That Next Big Thing Out of Brainstorming Employees: Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka's initiative to engage with over 160,000 employees and shortlist 10 ideas through a crowdsourcing exercise, murmuration, is just the sort of thing that experts say helps technology companies not only source the next big idea from within the organisation idea but also boost the morale of employees. The new CEO's objective was twofold, said a senior executive of Bengaluru-based Infosys, India's second largest software exporter. “First, to boost employees' morale by reaching out and engaging with them, and the second, to get feedback from people who work with our customers and implement what they think the company should be doing,“ said the executive, who did not wish to be identified. Sikka first connected with over 160,000 engineers on July 15, asking them to share with him the key areas of innovation that they believed the clients were focusing on. From the initial 2,700 ideas by employees, the company came up with a longlist of about 70 solutions, before finally narrowing down to 10 such ideas which it believed could be backed. A few can be used to develop IP (internet protocol) or offer a new service, said the executive cited earlier, without disclosing details.

• Indians’ love for instant messaging shows up: The government doesn’t seem to like it but Indians are loving it. Last June, the government discussed apossible ban on WeChat, a Chinese instant messaging application. Since January 2013 tilldate, WeChat’s user base has jumped a massive 2,364 per cent in India, taking it to fourth position, reveals a study by GlobalWebIndex. Globally, its user base rose only 156 per cent in this period. Its application was developed and is owned by Tencent, a Chinese company. Hence, the government says it has concerns on security. WeChat apart, India is the hottest land of opportunity for almost all instant chat apps. According to the GlobalWebIndex report, conducted across 32 markets involving 170,000 internet users, instant messaging as a segment has grown 113 per cent in terms of users of mobile messaging tolls since 2013. The study shows 52 per cent of Indian instant messaging users are on WhatsApp, while 42 per cent use Facebook Messenger. Skype is used by 37 per cent. WeChat has a 26 per cent share in the market, followed by Viber ( 18 per cent), Line ( 12 per cent), Snapchat ( nine per cent), Kik Messenger ( five per cent), Tango ( four per cent) and Kakao Talk ( three per cent).

• Jolla Tablet Will Go 3.5G If It Hits $2.5 Million In Crowd-Funding: The crowdfunded Jolla Tablet broke the $1 million barrier in just over a day. Now having more than tripled its original $380,000 target, Jolla has announced that it’s adding new campaign goals including the option of built-in 3.5G data. Jolla says it will add the option for Jolla Tablet owners in Europe to upgrade their device to a 3.5G HSDPA for $30 if the campaign his $2.5 million. It will look to make the cellular-connected version available in other markets later. Other campaign goals, based on the most wanted features submitted via its community platform Together.Jolla.com, include a split screen user interface (unlocked at $1.75 million) and extending memory card support up to 128GB (unlocked at $1.5 million). Jolla has also announced a starter kit to allow backers of the IndieGoGo campaigns to become Jolla Tablet distributors. To take part, you’ll need to buy 20 units at once for $3,499 to get a 30 percent discount on the expected retail price and access to marketing assets. The Jolla Tablet crowd-funding campaign is running until 9 December. The company is aiming to ship the finished device by May 2015.

• OnePlus Opens First Retail Store in China: The $349 OnePlus One might still be invite-only, but the company has started to build its own retail stores in China for those that want to buy it in person. Earlier this week, the company temporarily opened its new Beijing store for a peek; the shop isn’t due to be open to the public until December 20th. The store appears to only stock the company’s “flagship killer” OnePlus One and a number of accessories for purchase. For a company that only just got started a year ago, it’s a pretty impressive move. 

• Uber suspends operations in Nevada after ruling: Uber suspended operations in Nevada late Wednesday, after a Washoe County District Court judge granted the state's request for a court order blocking the ride-sharing service. The judge said Uber's refusal to comply with state laws regulating commercial motor carriers and passenger transportation services could put the public's safety at risk. Nevada's attorney general filed a lawsuit last month arguing that the Internet application matching riders with drivers using personal cars for a fee infringes on the franchise rights of taxi companies and cabdrivers serving fare-paying passengers under state oversight. Washoe District Judge Scott Freeman granted the state's request for a preliminary injunction pending a future trial.