Daily News Digest- 29th Jan'15

Thought of the Day:

Today in History:

Following made the Headlines:

India:

• Olacabs Hits the Highway, to Buy Out TaxiForSure: Olacabs is on th verge of buying rival Taxi ForSure for about $200 million (₹1,250 crore), an aggressive move which sets up straight fight with Uber fo dominance of India's taxi aggregation market. According to three people di rectly involved in the negotia tions, Olacabs, backed by Ja pan's SoftBank, will pay cash and offer stock in what will be the second-largest buyout in the consumer Internet market after Flipkart's acqui sition of fashion portal Myntra for an estimated $370 million last year. “The term sheet has been signed and in the next 10 days the finer details will be chalked out,“ said one of the sources, referring to the docue ment which spells out the terms of a potential transac tion. TaxiForSure and Ola cabs, both based in Bengalua ru, declined comment.r The sources who briefed ET about the talks said the aim of combining forces is two-fold. This includes taking on Uber, which is valued at $40 billion, and focussing on lowering costs as regulators step up oversight of the taxi app market.

• Snapdeal to Hire 15 Top-Level Personnel: Jasper Infotech, which owns and operates online marketplace Snapdeal.com, is looking to hire several key personnel across functions, as the Delhi-based company looks to beef up its second rung of leadership in its bid to stay ahead in a highly competitive sector. The company is looking to fill between 10 and 15 top managerial positions by the end of the current financial year, spread across critical functions, such as technology, operations, marketing and supply chain, a senior company executive said. “Snapdeal is constantly venturing into newer areas, and one needs to ensure that you're bringing on board the right leadership abilities,“ said Saurabh Nigam, VP (HR) at Snapdeal. The company, according to Nigam, has already filled in 30-odd key positions, but is actively looking to hire top executives, a number of whom are expected to report to the two founders -Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.

• 22% Hikes Out for Delivery in Ecomm: Salary hikes are tipped to go on an overdrive this increment season with top performers in FMCG, oil & gas, industrial goods, retail, transport, technology, etc, set to earn increments in excess of 20%. Average increments in most sectors are expected to be in double digits, according to estimates from leading talent and compensation firms, Hay Group, Mercer, Aon Hewitt, Towers Watson and TeamLease. These firms are also in consensus that top performers will earn almost double the average increment. This has set expectations of 20%plus hikes for top performers. “This year, the differentiation (between top and average performers) is higher. Companies are paying double to their top performers compared with average peers to retain them,“ said Ajit Isaac, chairman of Quess Corp (earlier Ikya Human Capital Solutions). “There is expected to be a big supply-demand gap, and some terrific success stories of companies along with good earnings per share is making the differentiation sharper,” said Ajit Isaac of Quess Corp.

• Indian Startups Eye Unsaturated Mkts in Africa & South America: Indian startups with global ambitions are looking beyond conventional destinations like the United States and Southeast Asia to focus on emerging economies such as Africa and South America, where they can apply their strategic advantage and technical expertise to tap into unsaturated markets. Ad retargeting company Vizury, launched in 2008, now services regional e-commerce giants such as CTrip and Gomei in China and Mobli and Dafiti in Brazil. Restaurant discovery service Zomato is now present in Brazil and South Africa, and has acquired four startups in east Europe as part of its expansion plans while Capillary Tech nologies has offices in Trinidad and the UAE. Cloud telephony company Knowlarity, after expanding to Southeast Asia last year, is now turning its focus on South America and north Africa.

• Rocket Internet-backed Printvenue Raises $4.5 M: Rocket Internet-backed printvenue.com has secured $4.5 million from Asia Pacific Internet Group to expand its presence in West Asia and Southeast Asia. APACIG is a joint venture between Rocket Internet and Qatar-based telecom player Ooredoo. Through this funding, the company will join APACIG's network. Currently, APACIG operates in 15 countries, of which Printvenue is active in two -Singapore and Australia. “We are growing at more than 20% monthover-month at the moment, with over two lakh orders per month,“ said Printvenue's co-founder and managing director Saurabh Kochhar, who is also the CEO for Rocket Internet's Office portfolio, which includes Printvenue, Zocprint and OfficeYes. In the long run, it is our vision to become the world's one-stop shop for all the printing needs,“ he said. With the help of this expansion, two-and-ahalf-year old printvenue.com expects to touch revenues of $2 billion in the next five years.Currently, 85% of Printvenue revenues come from India. According to Kochhar, the global revenue contribution is expected to grow to 50% in the next five years.

• Apple Keeps Us Waiting, Again: Smartphone retailers in the country are once again unable to meet the demand for iPhone 6 as its supplies have fallen by 50% in the last three weeks with Apple diverting stocks to the US, Europe and China. The 16GB and 64GB models of iPhone 6, which together currently account for almost 70% of iPhone sales in the country, are the least in supply, three senior executives of Apple's trade partners told ET. The executives, who requested anonymity, said Apple's distributors have informed the trade that supplies will normalise in about a month once Apple is able to normalise its channel inventory in its top markets.

• Dhoni Biopic Could be a Hit with `His' Brands: The co-producers of the biopic, `MS Dhoni: The Untold Story', are likely to rake in as much as `. 30 crore from the brands endorsed by the Indian cricket captain, said two ad industry executives with knowledge of the way such deals work. The cricketer endorses more than a dozen brands, including PepsiCo for which he is the face of both its cola and snacks, footwear firm Reebok, telecom services provider Aircel, fan maker Orient, two-wheeler firm TVS, milk food drink Boost, lubricants maker Gulf Oil and suitings firm Siyaram. The Star Group's Fox Star Studios and Inspired Entertainment, promoted by Dhoni's management agency Rhiti Sports, are co-producing the film. Both expect the brands to be a part of the movie project.

• Suzuki Plans Rs. 8,500-Cr Investment in Guj Plant: Suzuki Motor started construction of a manufacturing plant in Gujarat that Chairman Osamu Suzuki called the start of a “new era“ for the Japanese carmaker. Suzuki plans to supply vehicles made at the factory to local unit Maruti Suzuki, a proposal that is staunchly opposed by some of the Indian company's minority shareholders. Suzuki Motors Gujarat, a wholly owned subsidiary of Suzuki Motor, will own the plant where it plans to invest close to ₹8,500 crore in several phases. The facility at Hansalpur on the outskirts of Ahmedabad is estimated to create a capacity of 7.5 lakh units a year, and is being projected to help Maruti attain its sales target of 2 million vehicles by fiscal 2020. Speaking at an event on Wednesday where Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel laid the foundation stone for the plant, Osamu Suzuki said: “Under the `Make in India' programme proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we will set up a state-of-the-art production plant here in Gujarat, with high focus on productivity and efficiency.“ 

• SpiceJet Joins Low Fare Race: Budget carrier SpiceJet on Wednesday joined the low fare race in the domestic market putting on the block half a million seats with ticket prices starting at ₹ 1,499 under a limited period promotional offer. The bookings under the three-day “Super Sale“ offer can be made from today for a travel period between February 15 to June 30, SpiceJet said in a release. The offer comes two days after its competitor AirAsia India announced a discount fare scheme with a seven-day booking window period. January-March and JulySeptember quarters of the fiscal are traditionally low travel demand period in the country and so airlines roll out such discount fare schemes to woo customers and fill the seats. “We are excited to offer our first signature promotion for 2015 to incentivise customers to try our enhanced schedule and reward early planners with great discounted fares,“ said Kaneswaran Avili, chief commercial officer, SpiceJet.

• Tata Motors Plans to Expand Rural Network: Tata Motors, India's biggest automobile company by revenues, plans to aggressively expand its network with a focus on rural markets, a move aimed at “insulating“ the company from any market uncertainty in the future. People aware of the development told ET that the company is aiming to more than triple its network to 1,500 over the next three years from 460 now, making it the biggest such expansion by a passenger vehicle maker in the country so far. The move is being spearheaded by Mayank Pareek, who was recently appointed president of passenger vehicle division at Tata Motors. “We are planning to expand our footprint in the country--big, small, smaller, wherever you see demand, you go there.We have around 460 outlets in a country , which has got 3,854 talukas, we should be there. In the 21st century , you don't expect customers to come to you, you go to customers,“ Pareek said. Pareek, who was earlier with Maruti Suzuki, played a key role in transforming rural sales for the country's biggest car maker. Under his watch, the company saw sales in hinterland jump sixfold in the five years to 2012-13, contributing 31% to its total sales.

• Small Startups Joining Hands with Big Entities to Nurture their Brand: Online platform myLaw.net run by Delhi-based startup Rainmaker tied up with iLaw Global this month to provide courses certified by American Bar Association (ABA) to Indian students at affordable prices. Rainmaker is among the many startups that have formed symbiotic relationships with entities larger than themselves to build mutually beneficial business and synergies, and boosting their own brands in the process. “Our ability to have tied up with an organisation of their repute and standing is of significance. iLaw's network will help us build close relations with law schools in the United States. We are going to get top tier professors in areas and subjects of law to create content,“ said Antony Alex, chief executive of myLaw.net. US-based iLaw Global manages and runs a number of law schools including the Charlotte School of Law and the Arizona Summit Law School, besides working in partnership with various law schools, colleges and universities across the country to create educational products or to transform existing programmes.

• Stripped AI Dreamliner May Take Off Again in Feb: When Air India inducted a Boeing 787 with tail number VT-ANI in 2012, no one could have imagined that the aircraft would end up being grounded and its parts used to keep other Dreamliners in the fleet flying. After 10 long months in the hangar in Mumbai due to various maintenance issues, the aircraft is likely to resume flying next month. The national carrier, which is the thirdlargest operator of Dreamliners in the world, had ordered spares for the parts that were used in the other aircraft, which have been delivered. The aircraft is now awaiting approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to take to the skies again.

International:

• Amazon offers Work e-mail service to compete against Google: Amazon.com Inc is starting an e-mail and calendar service for professionals dubbed WorkMail, pushing deeper into a corporate technology market dominated by Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. WorkMail would compete against Microsoft’s Outlook and Google’s Apps for Work to become a daily point of contact between Amazon and customers. It builds on the technical capabilities the Seattle-based company has developed through its Amazon Web Services cloud-computing division, through which Amazon also offers a file-storage service named Zocalo and databases like Amazon Aurora. “Customers have repeatedly asked us for a business e-mail and calendaring service,” Amazon vice president Peter De Santis said in an e-mailed statement. T.J. Keitt, an analyst at Forrester Research, said while Microsoft and Google have carved out big positions in the cloud e-mail space, “there’s still a big portion of the marketplace that is wary of those vendors for a number of reasons, including security.”

• McDonald's boss Don Thompson out after nearly three years: McDonald's boss Don Thompson is stepping down after two and a half years in the job, as the company continues to struggle with a declining customer base in the US. He will be replaced by British-born Steve Easterbrook, the company's current chief brand officer, in March. "It's tough to say goodbye to the McFamily," said Mr Thompson, a 25-year veteran, in a press release. McDonald's recently reported disappointing results. Fourth quarter earnings were $1.1bn, down 21% from a year earlier. The company also reported its fifth consecutive decline in sales. Crucially, sales in the lucrative US market were down by 4.1%, as US consumers continue to eschew McDonald's, in favour of so-called "fast-casual" restaurants like Chipotle and Shake Shack.

• Facebook reports strong profits, adding millions of users: Facebook reported fourth-quarter profits of $701m (£462m), a 34% increase on the same period a year ago. Advertising revenue grew by 53% to $3.59bn, with nearly 70% of that coming from mobile ad sales. The social networking giant said it now has 1.39 billion active users each month, a 13% increase from a year ago. "We got a lot done in 2014," said Mark Zuckerberg in a statement accompanying earnings. Total profits for the year were $2.9bn, almost double the total for 2013. However, the amount of profit the company made on each dollar of revenue decreased from 44% to 29% from a year earlier, as the social network invested more heavily in marketing and research and development (R&D). The amount Facebook is spending on R&D nearly tripled to $1.1bn this quarter, as the company spent considerable sums on developing its various acquisitions such as Instagram, WhatsApp and virtual-reality headset maker Oculus Rift, as well as its own in-house messaging products and video services.

• Tesco names 43 UK store closures: Supermarket giant Tesco has named the 43 stores it is closing across the country, a move that will see 2,000 staff lose their jobs. The company is currently informing staff at the affected stores. The Express and Home Plus stores will close on 15 March with the Tesco Metros and Superstores on the list closing on 4 April. Tesco warned earlier this month that 43 stores would be shut as part of plans to cut costs. Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis said the decision to close the stores was "exceptionally difficult". "Our priority is to explain what this announcement means for our colleagues and, wherever possible, offer them alternative roles with Tesco," he added. Superstore closures include those in Doncaster and Chatham, while the DIY and homeware Homeplus closures include stores in Edinburgh and Southampton.

• Missoni Celebrates New Paris Flagship: The Missoni family and friends gathered Tuesday night to celebrate the new Missoni flagship’s opening on Paris’ Rue Saint-Honoré. Angela Missoni, who worked on the boutique design with Spanish architect Patricia Urquiola, said among her favorite things to do in Paris is visit flea markets, especially at the Porte de Vanves. “When I go to the market, I’m not looking for something [particular]; I am looking for something to surprise me, whatever it is,” she said. Her mother, Rosita Missoni, had introduced her to antiquing, starting with the vast one at Porte de Clignacourt.

Tech:

• Xiaomi Unveils Feature-rich Mi 4 Phone: Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi launched the Mi 4 for ₹19,999, making the featurepacked phone a very compelling purchase compared with some of the high-end smartphones available in the country. About 40,000 Mi 4 devices will be offered in the first flash sale on Flipkart on February 10, registrations for which began on Wednesday, the company said. Xiaomi, which got bumped off the top position by Apple in its home mar ket of China in Q4 of 2014, as per Canalys, has created inroads in the fast-growing Indian handset market with sales crossing 1 million smartphones in the country within six months of launch. The Mi 4 has a 5-inch screen with 3GB RAM, 16GB of internal memory and is powered by a 3080 mAh battery. It has a rear 13MP and front 8MP camera with a large f1.8 aperture, which enables it to take pictures with good details in low light. With these features, the device is well-positioned against the iPhone 6, Sony Xperia Z3 and Samsung Galaxy Alpha, all priced above ₹38,000, analysts said.

• No More Goofing about, Hackathons Mean Business: Two hackathons kicked off in different parts of India last weekend to address specific objectives, signifying coming of age of marathon coding events that have so far largely been about like-minded people getting together for some fun. United States-based Science Inc conducted its first hackathon in the world in Bengaluru with the intention of converting ideas into companies if possible. The three-year-old firm has birthed at least a dozen start-ups across the world so far, including Bitcoin resource and news site CoinDesk, and employee referral company SpringRole. The other hackathon is equally focused if entirely dissimilar in its format and objectives. The seven-day Kumbhathon, which started in Nashik on January 24, aims to hack into potential problems during the world's largest religious congregation, the Kumbh mela, which is held every third year at one of the four places by rotation -Haridwar, Allahabad, Nashik and Ujjain.

• Tumblr iOS Update Gets Interactive Notifications and More: Tumblr today released an update for iOS that brings a number of new features to the app. Users can now receive interactive notifications on their lock screen for quick post liking or following. They’ll also receive alerts about fan mail, asks and answers. There’s also better 1Password integration, a bunch of design tweaks and the ability to clear your cache to save space on your device.

• Adobe Completes Buyout of Fotolia Stock Content Marketplace: Smack in the middle of the holiday season, Adobe announced its intention to acquire stock content marketplace Fotolia, which specializes in royalty-free photos, images, graphics and HD video, for $800 million in cash. Today, that buyout is complete and Fotolia’s asset collection will now be integrated into Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription service, letting its 3.4 million members access and purchase Fotolia’s stash of more than 35 million images and videos for their designs. Adobe says it will also continue to operate Fotolia as a standalone stock service, accessible to all, with or without a Creative Cloud membership. Fotolia operates in 23 countries and has websites in 14 languages.

• OneDrive Update Will Let You Search Photos Based on Time, Location or Extracted Text: Microsoft has announced a raft of photo-focused features for OneDrive, which will include an intriguing new search feature. Due to roll out “over the next couple of weeks, ” the update brings the ability for users to more easily view and manage photos on a mobile device or on the desktop, and a new Album view displays larger, edge-to-edge images in a collage. It’ll also make importing images directly to OneDrive a whole lot easier from Windows 7 and 8 computers; images will be saved automatically in new ‘Screenshots’ and ‘Camera imports’ folders. Screenshots will still be saved to your clipboard like normal, too.

• Snapchat is getting its own original video series sponsored by AT&T: For an app that started off as doing no more than sending temporary picture messages, Snapchat sure is getting a lot of new content these days. You’ll soon be able to find the first set original scripted programming on Snapchat, according to Bloomberg. The show, dubbed “SnapperHero,” is produced by a collaboration between AT&T and studios Astronauts Wanted and Fullscreen Inc; Snapchat itself isn’t involved. The general plot involves YouTube and Vine celebrities playing superheroes in short clips. Some of the personalities involved include Freddie Wong and Anna Akana, both with millions of subscribers on YouTube, who are set to begin promoting the series today. The series will contain 12 episodes ranging from 100 to 200 seconds.

• Facebook Now Has a Dedicated Super Bowl Page:Whether you’re into (American) Football or not, you’re sure to hear a lot of people talking about this Sunday’s Super Bowl on Facebook. If you want to stay up to date with the latest news on the game, Facebook has a new page for you. The company is introducing a dedicated hub for Super Bowl XLIX – it’s basically a slightly amped-up “Trending” page, showing the latest comments on the game from both your friends and all around Facebook, in addition to related articles and photos from new outlets and people at the event. There are a couple of neat touches too though. You’ll be able to see the game’s score and update with your best reactionary statuses right from the page – posts are automatically tagged with “watching Super Bowl XLIX.” You’ll also see related trends and scoreboards for the games leading up to the big showdown on the right-hand side.