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Don't watch local TV stations? DirecTV will shave $12 off your monthly bill if you drop them

Business InsiderBusiness Insider · 1y ago
Don't watch local TV stations? DirecTV will shave $12 off your monthly bill if you drop them
Medial

DirecTV has introduced a new package that allows customers to opt out of local stations, giving them a discount of around $12 per month. Customers can choose to drop local channels during certain months and add them back when desired. The move comes as many consumers are seeking more affordable options and more control over their content choices. This comes amidst the pressure for TV providers to adapt to cord-cutting trends. DirecTV customers can reconfigure their package over the phone or online soon. The decline in television viewership has also affected local broadcasters, with free streaming service Zeam now providing local news coverage from approximately 300 stations across the US.

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Unicorn India Ventures leads $2 Mn round in PeLocal

EntrackrEntrackr · 9m ago
Unicorn India Ventures leads $2 Mn round in PeLocal
Medial

Fintech startup PeLocal has raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by Unicorn India Ventures. The Chennai-based company had previously raised $1.06 million in the same round from Future Monk Investments and others. The proceeds will be used to expand and enhance the platform and also help accelerate go-to-market strategies for rolling out large-scale projects, PeLocal said in a press release. Launched in 2021 by Vivekanand Tripathi, PeLocal is a payment solutions provider within WhatsApp, advancing digital transactions for clients like Delhi Metro, Indraprastha Gas, Mahanagar Gas, and insurance providers. The platform specializes in transit ticketing, utility payments, and financial services, delivering secure solutions across government and private sectors. It aims to empower secure and end-to-end solutions leveraging cutting-edge communication channels. PeLocal aspires to leverage technologies like WhatsApp for seamless, secure, and customer-centric transactions. It also bridges the gap between merchants and consumers, envisioning the idea of being ‘Vocal for Local.’ The company plans to go aggressively on payments in WhatsApp and further strengthen its leadership position in the payments solutions market. In the last 12 months, PeLocal claims to have grown from 500K monthly payment transactions to 3 million monthly payment transactions. The company aims to touch 10 million monthly payment transactions on WhatsApp in the next 12 months. It is planning to launch a Marketing Catalog on WhatsApp with payments and an SMB payments platform on WhatsApp. It competes with other players in the space like Yellow.ai, Gupshup, and others.

boAt and Noise’s growth decline in Q3 amid market slowdown: IDC report

EntrackrEntrackr · 9m ago
boAt and Noise’s growth decline in Q3 amid market slowdown: IDC report
Medial

India's wearable device market saw a second consecutive quarterly decline, dropping 20.7% year-over-year to 38 million units in Q3 2024, as per IDC's India Monthly Wearable Device Tracker. As per the report, this decline was driven by fewer product launches and cautious inventory management, even during the festive season. Notably, the average selling price (ASP) for wearables increased for the first time since Q2 2019, rising 1.3% to $21.3 in Q3 2024. While wrist bands saw a 48% decline to 56K units in Q3 2024, smartwatches and earwear saw 44.8% and 7.5% drops in the number of shipments. Smart watch and earwear’s total shipments stood at 9.3 million 28.5 million units respectively. With a 32% market share, boAt is the top smart wearable company (including watches and earphones). Noise, Boult, Realme, and Oppo (Oppo + OnePlus) had 11%, 9.7%, 5.8%, and 5.5% market shares, respectively. However, boAt saw a 14.5% decline in Q3 2024 compared to Q3 2023, and Noise faced a 19.2% decline during the same period. Notably, Boult and Realme recorded 32.5% and 56.5% growth, respectively, in the quarterly period. Breaking down further, boAt led in the true wireless stereo (TWS) category with a 36.8% market share, while Noise was on top in the smartwatch segment with a 27.4% market share. The smart ring segment continued to expand in Q3 2024, with over 92,000 units shipped and a 16.2% YoY drop in the average selling price (ASP) to $162.1. Ultrahuman led the market with a 36.8% share, followed by boAt (Imagine Marketing) at 20.5%, and Pi Ring at 16.3%. The rising appeal of smart rings is reflected in decreasing prices and the anticipation of new product launches in the coming quarters. Market leaders boAt and Noise also saw slow growth during the last fiscal year. While boAt's revenue decreased by 5% to Rs 3,122 crore in FY24, Noise’s revenue from operations grew a modest 0.4% to Rs 1,431 crore in the last fiscal year. However, both companies, which are based out of Gurugram, maintained EBITDA profitability in FY24.

Quikr posts first-ever profit in FY24 but left with only Rs 20 Cr in current assets

EntrackrEntrackr · 3m ago
Quikr posts first-ever profit in FY24 but left with only Rs 20 Cr in current assets
Medial

Quikr’s revenue from operations dropped 12% to Rs 45 crore in FY24 from Rs 51 crore in FY23, according to its consolidated financial statement sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC). Once one of India’s early unicorns, horizontal classifieds platform Quikr has experienced a consistent year-on-year decline in revenue and is now barely clinging to survival, operating at a drastically reduced scale. While the Bengaluru-based company reported a 12% drop in operating revenue, the silver lining is that it turned profitable for the first time, achieving a profit-to-revenue ratio of 1:22 in the fiscal year ending March 2024. Quikr’s revenue from operations dropped 12% to Rs 45 crore in FY24 from Rs 51 crore in FY23, according to its consolidated financial statement sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC). The bulk of Quikr’s revenue, accounting for 86% of total income, came from lead referral fees and advertising. Lead referral fees generated Rs 22 crore, while advertising services brought in Rs 17 crore. Commission and other service income contributed Rs 3 crore each. The firm earned an additional Rs 11 crore from provision write-backs and gains on financial assets, taking its total income to Rs 56 crore in FY24. On the expense side, employee benefit expenses remained the largest cost center, accounting for 69% of the expense. To the tune of scale, this cost was trimmed by 10% to Rs 37 crore. Interestingly, spending on advertising, while still relatively small, tripled to Rs 3 crore from Rs 1 crore in FY23. Depreciation and amortization expenses fell drastically from Rs 5 crore in FY23 to just Rs 15 lakh in FY24, significantly reducing non-cash expenses. Overall, Quikr managed to cut total costs by 11.5% to Rs 54 crore in FY24 from Rs 61 crore in the previous year. The company’s ability to bring down operating costs along with other revenue helped Quikr to gain profitability in FY24. The Tiger Global-backed firm recorded a profit of Rs 2 crore in contrast to Rs 8 crore loss in FY23. Its ROCE and EBITDA margin improved to 1.69% and 5.36%, respectively. Quikr spent Rs 1.20 to earn a rupee of operating revenue in FY24. As of March 2024, the Bengaluru-based firm reported current assets of Rs 20 crore for FY24, including Rs 2 crore in cash and bank balances. This marks an 80% drop from Rs 11 crore in FY23, raising concerns about liquidity, cash flow utilization, or a potential shift in capital deployment strategy. According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Quikr has raised a total of $380 million in funding to date, which is a staggering 52 times its FY24 revenue. Its prominent backers include Warburg Pincus, Kinnevik, Tiger Global, and Matrix Partners India (now Z47). With most investors having written off their investments in the firm, the only question remaining now is if it can survive as some sort of sustainable business. While perhaps enriching for many personally, such a spectacular burnout does leave its mark on the ability to pivot to new realities, something Quikr consistently failed to do. For a firm that doubled down harder with even more money spent every time it faced a setback, the new reality is to use the collective experience of a decade and more to monetise, at however small a scale. And do it profitably. Will the present reserves be enough to turn it around for good? We wouldn’t count on it, the profits notwithstanding.

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