ITV

Category: iWorld

  • #BigBillionDay sale blunder: Flipkart apologises, govt probes

    #BigBillionDay sale blunder: Flipkart apologises, govt probes

    MUMBAI: The sale that was touted as the biggest sale in India by shoppers across the country seems to have disappointed many. With a mile long complaint list which included everything from server errors to price issues, abrupt cancellations among others, the dissatisfied and disgruntled customers backlashed on social media, with hashtags branding them as ‘Flopkart’ trending.

     

    A day after the failure of the the Big Billion Day Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal apologised for the chaotic and unpleasant experiences faces by the customers on 6 October.

     

    “Yesterday was a big day for us. And we really wanted it to be a great day for you. But at the end of the day, we know your experience was less than pleasant. We did not live up to the promises we made and for that we are really and truly sorry,” the Bansals, wrote in a joint email to customers.

     

    The e-commerce firm said 1.5 million people shopped at its portal on 6 October to take benefit of the one-day sale scheme. The company claimed it sold products worth over Rs 600 crore in just 10 hours under the scheme. The company had announced deep discounts for products in over 70 categories.

     

    “And though we saw unprecedented interest in our products and traffic like never before, we also realised that we were not adequately prepared for the sheer scale of the event. We didn’t source enough products and deals in advance to cater to your requirements,” the founders said.

     

    They added that the load on server led to intermittent outages that impacted shopping experience on the website.

     

    Flipkart had deployed nearly 5,000 servers and had prepared for 20 times the traffic growth – but the volume of traffic at different times of the day was much higher than this, the mail revealed.

     

    Talking about the out-of-stock issues, the founders reckoned, “We had ensured availability, anywhere from hundreds to a few lakh units for various products, but it was nowhere near the actual demand. We promise to plan much better for future promotions and ensure that we minimise the out-of-stock issues.”

     

    The e-mail further stated, “We realise that this breaks the trust our customers have put in us. We are truly sorry for this and will ensure that this never happens again.”

     

    “Everything that we have achieved at Flipkart is purely on the basis of our customer’s trust and faith…We failed to live up to this promise and would like to apologise once again to every single customer for our failure,” the founders concluded.

     

    Not only customers complained against the Big Billion Day sale, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has also sought a probe into the business model and trade practices of e-commerce companies to find out how they are offering huge discounts during the ongoing festive season. It also demanded setting up of a special task force of experts to conduct an in depth probe of working of such companies.

     

    Also according to media reports, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman expressed concerns over Flipkart flash sale controversy.

     

    “We have received many inputs regarding Flipkart episode. Lot of concern has been expressed and we will look into it,” Sitharaman said.

     

    After receiving many complaints regarding the Big Billion Day sale, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman commented, “We have received many inputs. Lot of concerns have been expressed. We will study the matter… Whether there is a need for a separate policy or some kind of clarification is needed, we will make it clear soon,” the reports added.

  • PNC Digital makes entertainment ‘Only Much Louder’

    PNC Digital makes entertainment ‘Only Much Louder’

    MUMBAI: PNC Digital, today announced an exclusive collaboration with Only Much Louder (OML). Through this partnership, global subscribers of Ogle, PNC Digital’s proprietary streaming platform can now watch, the country’s most awaited music event, Bacardi NH7 Weekender, live on-demand. This three-day multi-artist music festival Bacardi NH7 Weekender will be held in Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Pune this November.

     

    Ogle global subscribers are free to choose whichever artistes they wish to see and watch them perform on devices of their choice. This exclusive collaboration between Ogle and OML will widen the range of entertainment available on Ogle. Commenting on this collaboration, Pritish Nandy, Chairman, PNC Digital said: “This is the beginning of change. Viewers can now watch whatever they want, wherever and whenever they want. The power is shifting from those who deliver entertainment to those who view it. That is the future.”

     

    Harshawardhan Sabale, CEO, Ogle said: “Ogle has been built ground up to become the digital platform of choice for viewers who are not interested in being slaves to entertainment intermediaries.  Our partnership with OML will provide our subscribers access to some of the best local content and bleeding edge digital interaction technology which, till now, was out of reach of most Indian consumers given the sub-optimal data networks in India.”

     

    Ogle constantly promises to provide anytime-anywhere entertainment to its viewers, establishing the power of choice for entertainment scripted and non-scripted. With this association PNC Digital has taken entertainment to the next level, allowing consumers an option, till now non-existent, to catch exciting new niche events and live performances in real time.  Ogle strives to introduce an entire lifestyle shift for those who are pushed for time and simply cannot afford appointment viewing.

     

    Vijay Nair, CEO, OML, said: “We are excited about partnering with Ogle and providing our fans a chance to watch some of the properties we have built and content we have produced through this platform. Ogle’s bouquet of content is quite exciting and we feel that the service is a natural fit for the content we create.”

     

  • Spice Mobility historical branding expenses indicate upward trend for FY-2015

    Spice Mobility historical branding expenses indicate upward trend for FY-2015

    BENGALURU: Indian mobile devices company Spice Mobility Limited (Spice -formerly S Mobility Limited) spent 89.9 per cent more towards branding expenses in the year ended 30 June 2014 (FY-2014) at Rs Rs 78.35 crore (3.7 per cent of total income from operations or TIO) as compared to Rs 41.26 crore (2.2 per cent of TIO) in FY-2013.

     

    For the 15 month period ended 30 June 2013 (15M-2012), the company spent only Rs 9.61 crore (3.5 per cent of TIO), while in the 12 month period ended 31 March 2011 (FY-2011M), the company had also spent Rs 6.51 crore (3.2 per cent of TIO) towards branding.

     

    Spice has reported a loss of Rs 28.15 crore in FY-2014 as compared to a PAT of Rs 5.48 crore in FY-2013, a loss of Rs 0.97 crore in 15M-2012 and a profit of Rs 10.4 crore in FY-2011M.

     

    Note: 100,00,000 = 100 Lakhs = 10 million = 1 crore

     

    Let us look at the branding expenses by the company over an eight quarter period starting Q1-2013 (quarter ended 30 September 2013) until Q4-2014 (quarter ended 30 June 2014). Please refer to the figure below:

     

    Over this eight quarter period, the lowest branding spend has been in Q3-2013 at Rs 9.21 crore (2.3 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2013 (quarter ended 31 March 2013) in absolute rupee value, while in terms of percentage of TIO, the company’s lowest branding spend at 1.8 per cent (Rs 9.76 crore) in Q1-2013. It may be noted that both these lowest quarterly spends are at par with Spice’s branding spend during 15M-2012 and significantly higher than the branding spend in FY-2011.

     

    Spice’s highest branding spend during the eight quarter period under consideration in absolute rupee terms has been in Q4-2014 at Rs 24.47 crore (4.5 per cent of TIO), while in terms of percentage of TIO it was in Q3-2014 at 4.6 per cent of TIO or Rs 21.71 crore.

    The figure above shows that on a quarterly basis, with time the linear trend lines depict branding spends in absolute rupees and percentage of TIO diverge. This indicates that the company’s branding spends in absolute rupees can increase further, but the increase in terms of percentage of TIO may be at a lower comparative rate or even flat on an annual basis,  but, brand spends could depend upon the company’s overall performance during the coming quarters and the financial year/s.

  • Yahoo! may lay off staff in Bengaluru to scale-down India operations

    Yahoo! may lay off staff in Bengaluru to scale-down India operations

    NEW DELHI: Yahoo is reducing the size of its operations in Bangalore, including possible layoffs. The operations in Bangalore are the largest engineering facilities of the Internet company outside its California headquarters.

     

    The company said, in a statement, that it was consolidating “certain teams into fewer offices” in Bengaluru but it would continue to have a presence there. It is learnt that the move comes more than a week after activist investor Starboard Value LP publicly pressured Yahoo to cut what it referred to as a “bloated” cost structure.

     

    Yahoo, a one-time Internet pioneer, is trying to revive stagnant revenue growth under the leadership of CEO Marissa Mayer, who took over two years ago. According to the sources, Yahoo had roughly 2000 employees in Bengaluru in March 2013.

     

    One of the sources said that at the time, Mayer was considering the option of bringing certain jobs from India back to Sunnyvale, California, to unite more of Yahoo’s product development at the home base.

     

    “As we ensure that Yahoo is on a path of sustainable growth, we’re looking at ways to achieve greater efficiency, collaboration and innovation across our business,” Yahoo’s statement said.

  • Integration with Bigg Boss season 8 gets 1 million new visitors on Snapdeal

    Integration with Bigg Boss season 8 gets 1 million new visitors on Snapdeal

    NEW DELHI: Snapdeal.com witnessed over 1 million incremental visits as a result of its innovative programming integration on Bigg Boss Season 8. In September, 2014 Snapdeal.com, India’s largest online marketplace, announced its association with COLORS’ popular reality show Bigg Boss Season 8 as its title sponsor. Since the launch of the show, Snapdeal.com together with COLORS has introduced a series of seamless integrations which have engaged both the contestants and viewers.

     

    As a part of the first phase of the programming integration, Snapdeal.com was seen as an integral part of the Bigg Boss house (episode13 aired on 03 October 2014), where the contestants were seen competing for points through specially designed tasks and using them to purchase products. A special shopping experience was created for the contestants through an interface showcasing products that were essential for sustenance in the house across the consumer durables and electronics categories. Through this integration, viewers got an opportunity to see the Bigg Boss contestants shop on India’s most trusted digital marketplace and also experience Snapdeal.com’s Diwali Bumper Sale.

     

    Talking about the partnership, Snapdeal.com Senior Vice President Marketing Sandeep Komaravelly said, “This partnership was a strategic move to integrate closely with one of the most popular shows on television. Bigg Boss is a popular show and widely viewed across the country. We saw this as the perfect opportunity to reach out to as well as increase our consumer base by engaging with them directly in their homes. The response that we have received till now is encouraging, and we are looking forward to receiving the same in the future as well.”

     

    Colors CEO Raj Nayak said, “Bigg Boss Season 8 is only getting bigger and better with every season. Joining hands with Snapdeal has given us the window to go beyond conventional integration ideas that will not only enhance the overall viewing experience for the audience but also help our sponsor to reach out to a wider audience base. In addition to the above, a special opportunity has been created for Bigg Boss fans to buy exclusive Bigg Boss merchandise from the Snapdeal website. The creation of such opportunities for our viewers as well as Snapdeal customers will enable us to draw synergies which will translate into a win-win situation for both parties. As the weeks progress, we aim to further build our partnership with multiple consumer engagement activities.”

     

    Further, Snapdeal.com has for the first time in India, also introduced a first-of-its-kind Bigg Boss merchandise store on its website where Bigg Boss aficionados can now own memorabilia from their favorite show. A wide range of products have been specially designed which will be available to consumers on: http://www.snapdeal.com/offers/bigg-boss-merchandise.

     

    Last week Snapdeal.com launched the “Order Order” contest for its customers. This contest allows consumers to be a part of the show directly wherein they have to select a quirky product for one of the contestants of the Bigg Boss House while citing a reason for doing so. Every week the customer who selects the most interesting combination of the product and reason, will get the opportunity of a lifetime to speak with host Salman Khan as well as one Bigg Boss contestant. For more details, log on to www.biggboss.snapdeal.com.

     

    Snapdeal.com together with Colors has many interesting programming integrations lined up and as the show progresses, viewers will get to engage more closely with the show via Snapdeal.com.

  • Johnny Lever to make his debut on Twitter

    Johnny Lever to make his debut on Twitter

    MUMBAI: There are all kinds of genres in cinema like thrillers, action, romance, horror and more but the one that never goes out of fashion is comedy and the name that is synonymous with this genre is Johnny Lever. With the premiere of the super-hit comedy movie – Entertainment starring Akshay Kumar, Tamannah Bhatia, Johnny Lever and Krushna Abhishek airing on Zee Cinema on Sunday, 12 October at 8:00 PM, the channel gives an opportunity to all Johnny Lever fans on Twitter to interact with the evergreen comic icon of Bollywood as he engages with them on the Twitter handle of Zee Cinema on 10 October between 11 30 AM and 1 PM.

     

    Johnny Lever is one of the most cherished comedians of Indian Cinema and while many look up to him for his famous comic timing, many others just love him for his heart-warming screen presence. The King of Comedy who has tickled the funny bone of every Indian household will now be gauging the antics of his ardent fans as they put their ‘comic’ foot forward to impress the man himself on Twitter. Zee Cinema has challenged ace entertainer Johnny Lever’s fans to make him laugh with their tweets using the handle #MakeJohnnyLaugh. All Johnny Lever fans can also tune-in to interact with Johnny Lever on Twitter and showcase their comic talent to him LIVE on Twitter! All those who manage to make him laugh will receive a retweet and a favourite from the actor himself as a token of appreciation.

     

    Ruchir Tiwari, Deputy Business Head, Hindi Movie Channels, ZEEL said, “We wanted to create a unique experience for our followers on social media and what better than getting one of the most admired comic icons of India, Johnny Lever, to engage with them on Twitter. Since Johnny has no official Twitter account, this will be a great opportunity for his fans to interact with him and in a role-reversal, they will have to entertain him this time! ”

     

    Catch the super-hit comedy movie – Entertainment starring Akshay Kumar, Tamannah Bhatia, Johnny Lever and Krushna Abhishek on Sunday, October 12th as the 8:00 PM, only on Zee Cinema.

     

  • Unique video game developed to encourage voters to cast their ballot

    Unique video game developed to encourage voters to cast their ballot

    NEW DELHI: In a unique venture, the Election Commission of India has developed a video game titled “Get! Set! Vote!” amongst a series of edutainment materials on voter awareness and education.

     

    The game has been created to broadly engage citizens of all age groups to learn on democracy and electoral process. 

    In a fun-filled and interactive manner, the video game gives out pieces of information and interesting details in10 levels of mazes. With every successive level, the information becomes more specific to subjects such as Indian democracy, registering to vote, ethical voting, help from ECI and so on. The mazes also get more challenging with the player clearing each level. 

    Under the Commission’s SVEEP (Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation) programme, the video game has been developed in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme India.

     

    It is available for playing on the ECI website (www.eci.gov.in) and can also be downloaded from the link- www.eci.nic.in/eci_main1/sveep.aspxfor playing on computers and kiosks. 

     

    A series of edutainment materials including picture book “Proud to be a Voter” and “Garv se bane Matdata”; Cartoon Strips “Wah Election Wah”; board game “Ready! Steady! Vote!” and “Vote kiBaazi”; and radio programme “Loktantra Express” has been developed for imparting voter education through entertainment. All materials can be accessed at the aforesaid link. Such materials will be disseminated through the election machinery, educational institutions and related agencies for addressing targeted population.  

  • Alcatel’s smartphone ‘Onetouch Fire C’ launches on Flipkart’s Big Billion Day Sale

    Alcatel’s smartphone ‘Onetouch Fire C’ launches on Flipkart’s Big Billion Day Sale

    BENGALURU:  A number of companies have said that they are working on the $20-25 smartphone for India. Alcatel Onetouch (Alcatel) has come in close with a smartphone that seems to have features that just about slot it into the smartphone category, a little above the features phone at a price of Rs 1990, or a little more than $30 – the ‘Onetouch Fire C’.

     

    The company is targeting first time users of smartphones that want to upgrade from the basic or the features phone in a very price sensitive market like India. The Onetouch Fire C will be available exclusively through Flipkart starting 6 October, or Flipkart’s Big Billion Day (Sale Day), for which the company has initiated a huge multimedia campaign. Flipkart feels that a lot of first time internet users will access the net on the Big Billion Day and hence push up sales of Onetouch Fire C. Flipkart has not planned a special campaign for individual products which include a Lenovo launch on 6 December 2014.

     

    However, Alcatel plans to push the Onetouch Fire C digitally for now, and through the print media sometime around Diwali. Its creatives are done globally, while media buying is through Ad Syndicate and Zenith Optimedia.

     

    “Even today, 71 per cent of market in India is feature phones, while 29 per cent is smartphones. Of that 29 per cent, between 30-40 per cent of the market is for the Rs 5000 or lower smartphone, and it is this market that we are targeting primarily with the Fire C,” said Alcatel Onetouch regional director APAC BU Praveen Valecha. The Onetouch Fire C is a 2G phone and the company is likely to come up with an upgraded low cost model sometime in November or December this year, which could have 3G or even 4G capability.

     

    “As a launch partner for Firefox OS, we know that our customers love its simple user interface and smooth navigation. We see a great deal of opportunity to bring these benefits to more consumers on a greater variety of devices at most affordable price and we are sure of success as it’s an innovative product selling on Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce platform,” said Valecha.

     

    Here’s what a press release has to say about the Onetouch Fire C:

     

    Offering Firefox OS features at entry-level price; the Fire C is a pocket-sized smartphone that is designed to make sharing simple. Its 3.5” HVGA screen and 1 GHZ processor offer smooth and fast Firefox OS apps experience. Complete with mobile broadband and stereo FM radio RDS, the Fire C2G offers all of the features needed to capture, share and enjoy content. Firefox is totally a web HTML based OS which gives best user experience on-the-go. It constitutes marketplace and best adaptive applications search along with rich media and social messaging apps support. A unique dynamic UI will be a big plus for the phone.

     

    Key features include:

    Onetouch Fire C – 2G: OS version – Firefox 1.3, Compact, pocket friendly design,  3.5” HVGA display, dual sim, 1.0 GHz, 1.3 MP camera; Colour – bluish black and dark chocolate; Multilingual support – English, Bangla, Tamil and Hindi languages.

  • Snapdeal, now bringing shopping to the small screen

    Snapdeal, now bringing shopping to the small screen

    MUMBAI: Looking at the growth of e-commerce sector in India, shopping at a click of a button seems to be the favourite pastime of the millions in the country.

     

    To make the most of it, e-retailer Snapdeal has gone a step further and formed a 50:50 joint venture with Den Networks to extend its reach to television home shopping audiences.

     

    The entities are together setting up a TV channel, which will be used as a marketplace platform for facilitating the sale of branded and unbranded merchandise and services, including vouchers offered by third-party sellers on Snapdeal.

     

    A source from Snapdeal says, “Snapdeal is not only trying to provide for consumers in the metros but also for people in tier II tier III cities and beyond. The current retail environment doesn’t cater to the smaller cities.”

     

    “Digital marketing can really bring a lot of depth in our plans and communications when it comes to top few tier cities but when you really want to go deep down in community, to the next round of cities, television is a medium to choose. Digital is definitely going up and providing great reserves, but television still remains one of the primary mediums,” the source adds.

     

    Snapdeal, which currently has over 30,000 vendors on its platform, will get direct access to millions of households in one go through this collaboration.

     

    Based out of Delhi, Den Networks reaches an estimated 13 million households in over 200 cities across 13 states in the country.

     

    Speaking about the reason behind its association with Den Networks, the source states, “They are the best partners for us in terms of ideation, speed of moving ahead and also the kind of household that they had, so all of that fell in place perfectly for us.”

     

    A separate team is taking care of the channel, which will be headquartered in Delhi. The channel will have full-fledged distribution across the country in the coming six to seven months, adds the source.

     

    After raising $12 million in its first round of funding in January 2011, the company has so far raised $340 million from PE firms. Started in February 2010 by Kunal Bahl along with Rohit Bansal, the company witnessed phenomenal growth in 2013-14, growing 600 per cent, making it one of the fastest growing e-commerce companies in India.

     

    Snapdeal’s rival HomeShop18.com, part owned by media major Network18, has a combined reach of over 250 million consumers coming through its integrated television, internet and mobile device channels.

     

    HomeShop18 recently filed its prospectus to raise a total of $75 million through a listing on the New York Stock Exchange including an offer for sale by some shareholders such as its CEO and parent Network18.

  • Kantar Media to commence TV audience engagement on Twitter in UK

    Kantar Media to commence TV audience engagement on Twitter in UK

    NEW DELHI: Audience measurement specialist Kantar Media, which also has a stake in TAM in India, has unveiled Britain’s official Twitter metric for measuring Twitter TV audience engagement.

     

    Developed with Twitter as part of a global partnership announced last year, the new Kantar Twitter TV Ratings tools will be available from mid-October.

     

    The new tool, bringing together geo-filtered UK Twitter data with the audience research expertise of Kantar Media, enables broadcasters, media agencies and advertisers to track exactly how Twitter amplifies the power of television.

     

    Kantar Twitter TV Ratings will include new metrics that have never been available before in the UK including:

     

    • Unique authors (people Tweeting) and their affinity to brands, channels and programmes

    • Unique audience – using data only available to Kantar Media, the firm is able to measure the number of individuals who viewed Tweets related to individual programmes/shows

    • Impressions – the total number of times that a Tweet or Retweet has been seen about a particular programme

     

    This is in addition to existing metrics including:

    • number of Tweets and Retweets about a programme before, during and after transmission;

    • average Tweets per minute and the highest volume of Tweets per minute ascribed to the programme in question

     

    According to Kantar Media global CEO and chairman Andy Brown, the launch of the first official Twitter TV metrics in the UK gives the broadcast industry official insight for social TV engagement to complement the BARB gold-standard TV measurement currency. “Using the Kantar Twitter TV Ratings, broadcasters, planners and advertisers will be able to assess programmes and series, plan programme promotions more effectively and assist media buyers and sellers to integrate social data more comprehensively into the TV component of their media mix,” he advised.

     

    In addition to these new metrics, Kantar Media has also developed an intuitive dashboard, Instar Social, that broadcasters, media agencies and advertisers can use to view and analyse data alongside their existing TV analysis tools. Instar Social will include a live, real-time leaderboard, providing a snapshot of the top Tweeted programmes as they happen, with the ability to drill down and view actual content of the Tweets in real-time.

     

    Further enhancements scheduled for release include trending topics that are driven by a programme, integration of BARB gold-standard ratings data into the dashboard enabling data overlays, as well as API data feeds.