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India’s taxi war may be headed for a truce

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MUMBAI: Gone are the days when we had to book a cab by calling a local can agency, and that’s because cab aggregators in India have completely changed the way we book a cab.

Back in the day, while Mumbai had its distinguished kaali-peelis, Delhi had its metro whereas Bengaluru didn’t have a great public transport system. Cabs were never a mode of transport in India until a few years ago.

India’s first official cab service began in Mumbai in 2007 with Meru cabs, who were extremely high priced but came in handy during airport and long-distance travels. It was in 2011, when cab service provider TaxiForSure eased the booking process by starting an online portal, aggregating multiple cab agencies. They grew in popularity by including an Android-based GPS system, which helped customers track their ride.

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Meanwhile, Ola, which started in 2010, was following a different model by associating directly with cab drivers, thereby eliminating the need for cab agencies. The company gained popularity only in 2013 as in the initial years, people couldn’t relate with the idea of talking to the driver directly on booking a cab and questioned the model’s authenticity. It was around the same time that global taxi market leader Uber entered the Indian market but failed to connect with the audience as it only allowed credit cards as a mode of payment.

Over the years, a lot has changed in the Indian cab aggregator sector, where some had to shut shop or were bought over due to bankruptcy and increasing losses. In March 2015, OlaCabs acquired TaxiForSure for approximately US $200 million and Geotagg, a trip-planning applications company, for an undisclosed sum. The company also acquired Foodpanda’s business in India in 2017. 

The segment has gained a lot of attention due to huge funding, highly competitive pricing (Ola-Uber on-going price war), security issues of women passengers and tussle with the government for license and permits.

Today, Ola clocks an average of more than 150,000 bookings per day and commands 60 per cent of the market share in India, while Uber’s shares have slipped from 42 per cent in July 2017 to 40 per cent in December 2017.  According to Japanese multinational conglomerate, SoftBank, the organised taxi sector in India may be worth $7 billion by 2020.

In 2016, Uber made a deal with its Chinese rival Didi Chuxing to exit the Chinese market, after the duo fought hard for the country’s huge customer base Uber also exited Russia and Eastern European markets last year after reaching a similar deal with Yandex, giving Uber 36.6 percent of the entity formed by the two companies. 

SoftBank has made major investment in Ola and Uber who has also invested in Grab, which is Uber’s rival in South East Asian countries. Ever since Uber inked the deal with SoftBank, there have been speculations that Uber would pull out of those markets and it turned into a reality earlier this year where Uber sold its business in SEA to Grab.

Now, news is doing the rounds in market that a possible merger between Ola and Uber may be on its way in India. Since the Ola-TaxiForSure acquisition, the Indian market has essentially been a two-horse race and now, were the Uber-Ola deal to work out, we'd witness a monopoly situation like never before as Uber and Ola, together hold nearly 95 per cent of the market today. 

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If the merger does happen, we may see increase in advertising and marketing for the new merged entity as Ola and Uber are India’s two major cab aggregators with pockets filled. Ola has a robust advertising budget for television and print whereas Uber has an upper hand at digital and social media marketing. The combined entity would indicate 360-degree advertising including print, out of home, television and digital. 

While Uber has always had an elite and urban vibe to it, Ola has a stronger presence across smaller towns and segments. The Indian firm operates in 110 cities, far more than Uber’s 31. The merged entity would ensure a better penetration in rural as well as urban markets as the customer base for both the apps would be aligned together. 

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This would also mean the prices would be kept in check as currently, Ola is assumed to be comparatively cheaper and affordable than Uber. But this could also go the other way, as a monopoly could lead to price tampering and exorbitant charges.

But the merger will also open the field for newer players to enter in the segment which will only help in competitive prices and all of them striving to serve better in order to acquire and retain customers. 

All said and done, when and how the merger will unfold is a story for another day but if there’s one thing, it will definitely be an interesting tale to tell.

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MAM

Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement

Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted

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MUMBAI: Nielsen is taking a fresh stab at one of television’s oldest blind spots: how many people are actually watching the same screen. The audience-measurement giant on February 4 unveiled a co-viewing pilot that uses wearable devices to better capture shared viewing, starting with America’s biggest broadcast stage.

The trial begins with Super Bowl LX on NBC on February 8, 2026, before extending to other high-profile live sports and entertainment events in the first half of the year. The goal is simple but commercially potent: count viewers more accurately, especially during live spectacles that pull families and friends to one screen.

The new approach leans on Nielsen’s proprietary wearable meters, wrist-worn devices that resemble smartwatches. These passively capture audio signatures from TV content, logging exposure to shows, films and live events without requiring viewers to sign in or self-report. In theory, fewer clicks, fewer lapses, better data.

Karthik Rao, Nielsen’s ceo, cast the move as part of a broader measurement push. He said the company’s task is to keep pushing accuracy as clients invest heavily in live programming that draws mass audiences. The co-viewing pilot, he added, builds on upgrades such as Big Data + Panel measurement, out-of-home expansion, live-streaming metrics and wearable-based tracking.

Co-viewing is not new territory for Nielsen, which has long tried to estimate how many people sit before a single set. What is new is the heavier integration of wearables and passive detection to reduce reliance on active inputs from panel homes.

For now, the pilot comes with caveats. Co-viewing estimates from the trial will not be folded into Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings, which remain the industry’s trading currency. Instead, pilot findings will be shared with clients a few weeks after final Big Data + Panel ratings are delivered. Clients may disclose those findings publicly.

More impact data will follow later this year. Full integration into Nielsen’s marketing-intelligence suite is slated as a longer-term play, with a target of bringing co-viewing into currency measurement for the 2026–2027 season. This is only phase one, with further co-viewing enhancements planned beyond 2026 and additional timelines to be announced.

The push fits a wider pattern. Nielsen has in recent years expanded big-data integration, adopted first-party data for live-streaming measurement and broadened out-of-home tracking. It also positions itself as the reference point for streaming metrics through products such as The Gauge and the Nielsen Streaming Top 10.

In a market where billions of ad dollars hinge on decimal points, counting who is in the room matters. If Nielsen can pin down shared viewing, the humble sofa could become prime measurement real estate. The race to count every eyeball just found a new wrist to watch.

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Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board

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Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.

Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.

“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.

The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.

Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.

The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.

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MAM

Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships

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SINGAPORE: Anuvrat Rao has taken charge as APAC  head of commerce and signals partnerships at Meta, steering monetisation deals across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from Singapore. The former Google executive, known for launching Google Assistant, PWAs, AMP and Firebase across Asia-Pacific, steps into the role after a high-growth stint as chief business officer at Locofy.ai.

At Locofy.ai, Rao helped convert a three-year free beta into a paid engine, clocking 1,000 subscribers and 15 enterprise clients within ten days of launch in September 2024. The low-code startup, backed by Accel and top tech founders, is famed for turning designs into production-ready code using proprietary large design models.

Before that, Rao founded generative AI venture 1Bstories, which was acquired by creative AI platform Laetro in mid-2024, where he briefly served as managing director for APAC. Alongside operating roles, he has been an active investor and advisor since 2020, backing startups such as BotMD, Muxy, Creator plus, Intellect, Sealed and CricFlex through a creator-economy-led thesis.

Rao spent over eight years at Google, holding senior partnership roles across search, assistant, chrome, web and YouTube in APAC, and earlier cut his teeth in strategy consulting at OC&C in London and investment finance at W. P. Carey in Europe and the US.

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