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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 · 8m 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.

Amazon says it has purchased some assets of MX Player, not entire company

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Amazon says it has purchased some assets of MX Player, not entire company
Medial

Last week Entrackr reported that Times Internet-owned MX Player is very close to getting acquired by Amazon. The e-commerce giant has now confirmed that it has acquired some assets of MX Player. Entrackr understands that Amazon has signed an agreement to purchase some assets from MX Player. The transaction, however, isn’t completed yet. “We are always looking for ways to introduce new products and services that help improve customers’ lives. We’re excited to continue to entertain India with the great local originals and exclusive content available across our Prime Video and miniTV services in India,” said an Amazon spokesperson in a response to Entrackr queries sent on May 29. As mentioned above, Entrackr had reported that Amazon was close to acquiring MX Player and the contours of the deal have been chalked out. Sources had outlined that potential transaction is a distress one and valued MX Player in the range of $50 million. Sources also asserted that the MX Player team will join Mini TV and its chief executive officer Karan Bedi is likely to join as director. Amazon, however, didn’t comment on specific queries related to the management rejig and merger with its existing services. That said, Amazon’s official stand implies that the company is indeed looking to integrate MX Player’s content IP with Mini TV and Amazon Prime. Though, its emphasis on not acquiring the entire company suggests that it doesn’t want to cover liabilities and other sides of MX Player’s business. In case you didn’t know, MX Player is owned by MX Media which also used to operate short video entertainment app MX TakaTak. The TikTok-like platform merged with Google-backed ShareChat in February 2022. Times Internet hasn’t responded to our queries sent to them last week.

Evify brings last-mile delivery to non-metro cities with EV logistics

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Evify brings last-mile delivery to non-metro cities with EV logistics
Medial

India’s electric vehicle market is set to be worth nearly $114 billion in 2029 with a CAGR of 66.5%, according to a report by Fortune Business Insights. The exponential growth in the EV space comes on the back of the government focus on sustainable mobility, increased VC capital infusion in the industry, and consumers’ wide embrace. Surat-based Evify is one of the relatively new startups that is looking to stand out with its strategy to focus on logistics in non-metro cities. Founded in 2021, Evify has essentially set up a facility where riders can come to their hub, pick up an EV to start deliveries, and return the vehicle at the end of the day. The company takes care of the maintenance of the vehicles. The startup currently operates in Surat and Ahmedabad, and has facilitated 11 lakh deliveries in the last one year. We spoke to the company co-founder and CEO Devrishi Arora to learn more about Evify, the idea behind the logistics EV startup, business model, and more. Here are the edited excerpts. What do you think are the key challenges in the emobility space? Since we come from a non-metro city, where the EV eco system is still at the nascent stage, there is no infrastructure available for the smooth functioning of the vehicles. There’s a scarcity of charging stations, inconveniencing EV users. Secondly, delivery riders lack awareness of EV benefits and savings. Thirdly, high initial EV costs, compounded by elevated RTO charges in states like Gujarat, and a scarcity of repair stations inflate expenses. Fourthly, concerns about EV range and charging infrastructure persist, particularly in Tier II cities with longer distances. Fifthly, limited availability of EVs and components, coupled with inadequate after-sales service, hampers adoption. Lastly, overcoming perceptions of EVs as less reliable requires client confidence, which we foster through pilot projects. How are you using technology to solve these challenges? We have also installed all the vehicles with telematics devices which helps us to geofence the vehicles, remote immobilization, study the rider driving pattern as well as idle time pattern of the riders. This has helped us to have control on our fleet as well as the riders. We have also been creating a full stack tech platform which will help us to study the rider analytics, battery analytics, BMS , IOT data, clients data, vendor data, ancillary industry data, repairs and maintenance, charging stations, etc under one single platform. How has your startup performed since inception? We started in September 2021 with just 30 vehicles and one client in Surat ie. Big Basket. Today, we have close to 500 vehicles servicing six major clients Zomato, Swiggy, Big Basket, Bluedart, Ecom Express, Flipkart in Surat and Ahmedabad. We are also launching our operations in Vadodara soon in the coming months. We have so far raised $1.3 million from GVFl and Piper Serica as the VC investors. The target is to have a fleet of 10,000 vehicles in the coming 2 years spread across 10 cities of Bharat. What are your short-term and long term goals? Our goals for the upcoming year involve expanding our presence in the four major cities of Gujarat and achieving a fleet size of 5,000 vehicles by the end of the next financial year. Additionally, we aim to establish the necessary EV ecosystem in these cities through collaborations with other EV players, fostering synergies, and raising awareness about this segment in Tier II cities. Looking ahead, our broader vision is to evolve into a green logistics service provider. This encompasses implementing green warehousing practices and facilitating first-mile, mid-mile, and last-mile deliveries using electric vehicles. Furthermore, we intend to partner with drop delivery services to offer comprehensive mid-mile delivery solutions to our clients.

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

EntrackrEntrackr · 8m 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.

Unpacking VerSe’s Josh: growth, monetization and future roadmap

EntrackrEntrackr · 9m ago
Unpacking VerSe’s Josh: growth, monetization and future roadmap
Medial

The short video entertainment space has seen consolidation with the merger of MX TakaTak, the pivot of Chingari, and the shutdown of Mitron TV. This has left the fledgling market with two main players: ShareChat’s Moj and VerSe’s Josh. While Moj’s parent company, ShareChat, has been struggling to scale its short video offering and secure follow-on funding, Josh remains well-capitalized and holds a leading position in the segment with approximately 180 million active users. “We have a monthly active user base of 179 million, along with 91 million daily active users,” said a Josh spokesperson in an interaction with Entrackr. “By the end of FY24, we had over 150 million downloads via playstore.” Josh is available in 12 Indian languages and reports that over 80% of its content is viewed in local dialects. This feature is particularly crucial as more than two-thirds of its users are from tier II and III cities such as Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Patna, and Raipur. OEM partnership: Key to Josh’s growth Josh’s DAU and MAU numbers appear staggering, but they don’t align with data from app trackers like App Annie and Appflyer. “These trackers are irrelevant in our case, as majority of our downloads come from pre-installed mobile phones,” the spokesperson clarified. Josh has secured more than two-thirds of its downloads through partnerships with smartphone manufacturers such as Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Samsung, among others. Creator-centric approach driving Josh’s topline The success of a short-video app largely depends on its creators and the ecosystem surrounding them. Josh has a community of over 100,000 creators and partnerships with 14 leading music labels. “Our monthly active creator base increased by 34% year-on-year, reaching 71 million in FY24,” added the spokesperson. Collaboration is a key focus for Josh, which launched Collab to tap into the influencer ecosystem. “Collab is designed to help brands discover influencers and engage with them seamlessly, without any friction,” said the spokesperson. After prioritizing traction for two and half years (September 2020 to mid 2023), Josh began monetization by opening the platform to brands for campaigns in the second half of 2023. Currently, Josh offers a range of advertising solutions which include diverse formats such as video ads, influencer-brand collaborations and influencer and content-led IPs. “Josh helps businesses in brand building, lead generation, user engagement, and creating overall awareness,” added the spokesperson. The platform has worked with 450 brands, including Amazon, Myntra, Nykaa, Xiaomi, since July last year. Around one-third of Josh’s user base was from tier 1 cities while 68% hailed from tier II and III cities. The popularity of short videos is 2X higher in tier II and III cities. Brands with a national presence who are looking to strengthen their brand recall in tier II markets and regional languages prefer Josh. While Josh didn’t give exact revenue numbers, it reported hitting an average revenue run rate of Rs 300 crore this quarter. “Our target is to achieve break even by the first half of 2025,” said the spokesperson. Live commerce/audio, audio stories to oil monetization roadmap In addition to tapping into the influencer ecosystem, Josh is exploring new formats such as brand shoppable commerce, live commerce, live audio, gifting and audio stories. As per the firm, these efforts aim to position Josh for revenue generation and profitability as it deepens its monetization road. The live audio feature on Josh enables users to have real-time conversations with specialised creators. Users initiating live audio calls pay per minute using Josh’s in-app currency, “Jems,” while creators earn “Diamonds,” redeemable in the Indian currency. Audio stories, particularly in regional languages, are also gaining traction. Josh offers subscription-based and micro-payments for specific content from partners like Velvet, Eight, and EarShot, viewing this as a substantial long-term opportunity. Josh has leadership in the Bharat-focused short video entertainment space and is actively working to demonstrate its platform’s ability to deliver real results and fulfil its promises to buyers. Josh’s strategic decision to remain closed to advertising until 2023 reflects its focus on building a robust user base and platform. With its recent monetization efforts, Josh is well positioned to address the market gap left by TikTok in India.

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