Hindi Content Consumption on Internet Growing at Whopping 94%: Google

We are lately seeing a lot many sites taking interest in developing the pages in vernacular languages. E-commerce websites are also launching apps in vernacular languages, and the existing ones are adding up more languages.

Just yesterday MakeMyTrip launched train-booking app supporting 5 languages. Everyone is keen on catering to the masses in remote villages, and so is Google. They’re launching Google maps and other products in Hindi, as it being the national language spoken in a larger section in the country, 21% Indians prefer to access Internet in Hindi.

“While there are an estimated 500 million speakers of Hindi, there are just 100,000 Wikipedia articles. India’s Internet population is growing really fast, from 100 million users in 2011, we are now the world’s second largest Internet base with 300 million users and we are well-poised to touch 500 million base by 2017,” Google India Marketing Director Sandeep Menon told PTI. “Hindi content consumption on the web is starting to take off. It has grown 94 per cent year-on-year compared to 19 per cent growth for English content,” Menon said.

It’s a well-known fact that this growth in India has come from nowhere but mobile phones. It has reached places afar and hence the consumption for Hindi content has grown a whopping 94 per cent year-on-year compared to only 19 per cent growth for English content. Out of the 22 official languages in the country, Hindi has made quite an impact on the Internet. There is however still a problem in areas with low network, which need to be worked well upon for this number of consumers to grow more.

Google is now going to work on the statistics received and lay focus on Hindi more strongly than the other vernacular languages. “Some of these include voice search being optimized for English in the Indian accent, and in Hindi to find answers faster, easier and more local. Apart from language, we are also offering offline features like the ability to save Maps or YouTube Offline to help users access services in patchy networks or without incurring huge data charges,” he said.

When we travel to villages in India, we see signs displaying in local languages for the comfort of the localities. Though many in the villages are fairly educated and some can even understand English, they are still much more comfortable with their own languages.

A report back in 2013 stated that 37% Indians prefer using Internet in their local languages – and this percentage would have only grown in last couple of years.

Many stayed away from the Internet because of lingual disabilities, even though they were keen on getting online. The industry has now taken a note of the same and has been developing websites and apps in various languages to cater to the diversity of the country.

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20% Of All Phones Sold Are Made In India; Ecommerce Accounts for 30% Of All Smartphone Sales In India

PM Modi’s Make in India campaign is giving rich dividends within 10 months of it’s launch. After creating 2.75 lakh new jobs, Make in India vision is driving mobile phones sales as well.

As per CounterPoint Research’s latest report for Q2 2015, 20% of all phones sold inside India were ‘Made in India’. With Micromax commanding 14.4% share and Lava 8% share in the overall handset market, this figure is poised to go up from here.

Overall, Samsung maintained it’s lead over other handset makers, with 18.7% market share in the overall phone market in India for Q2 2015, which is an increase of 0.5% compared to Q1 2015. Interestingly, Samsung’s best selling smartphone in India was Z1, which is not Android based but runs Samsung’s own Tizen OS.

Are we witnessing emergence of a new best selling OS here?

If we talk about smartphones, then ecommerce easily beats offline commerce in India.

30% of overall smartphone sales in India originated from ecommerce channels,with exclusive ‘online only’ strategy commanding 20% of all smartphones sold. Within this 20% share of ‘online only’ campaigns, Flipkart grabbed whooping 56% market share (the recently launched Moto G3 is available only on Flipkart)

Overall, smartphones resulted in 45% of all phones sold, with 4G LTE capable dominating the landscape. One of out of four smartphones sold in India are now 4G capable. This must be happy news for both Reliance Jio and Airtel who areaggressively pushing their 4G services in India right now.

Samsung remains the #1 smartphone vendor in India, with 24.5% share, which is 3.3% less compared to last quarter. Infact, Samsung’s S6 model was a bumper hit in India; as it outsold iPhone 6 by a ratio of 2:1.

Lenovo registered maximum growth in this segment, as it captured 7.5% share, compared to 5.2% last quarter. If we talk about only 4G enabled phones, then Lenovo was the 2^nd biggest vendor, after Samsung. In 4G segment, Xiaomi was at #3 position.

Apple maintained their good run in India, as it achieved 1 million sales mark within 7 months (during this fiscal year), compared to 12 months it took last fiscal year.

As expected, feature phones registered the strongest downfall as sales reduced 19% year on year and 9% compared to Q1. Meanwhile smartphone sales increased 34% compared to last year and 25% compared to last quarter.

You can find more data pertaining to Indian phone market for Q2 2015 here.

Major Reshuffle In Chinese Phone Market

Meanwhile in China, the market received some major shock, as Xiaomi catapulted to #1 position with 15.8% share during Q2 of 2015. Huawei witnessed strong sales numbers, as it rose to #2 position with 15.4% market share. Apple had to be content with #3 rank as it managed to grab on 12.2% market share.

However, revenues of Apple in China continued to grow, as more and more Chinese middle class are adapting their devices. Compared to 2014 fiscal year, revenues of Apple in China increased by 112%, to reach $60 billion.

Another major reshuffling was observed as Vivo, an upcoming brand, replaced Samsung to snatch #4 position with 8.1% market share. This is for the first time that Samsung has slipped to #5 position. Vivo is causing a tsunami of sorts in China with incredible 250% growth compared to Q2 of 2014.

You can find more data about Chinese phone market for Q2 2015 here.

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Google Rolls Out Sponsored Ads on Play Store To Drive App Installs For App Developers

Sponsored search ads will now be displayed on Google Play as it will now be open to advertisers and developers. It had rolled out the pilot for a few in February, and is now officially rolling out ads on the store. The company already mints billions of dollars each year from search advertising on Web/Mobile search and YouTube – adding Google Play is just another cherry on the cake for mobile monetization. Google is not just providing the advertisers with search ads, but also giving them tools to track their return on investment.

A tool called Android first app opens will help Google measure when a user first opens a particular application after clicking on an ad and completing an Android app install. In this way, the company could mint some more dollars by proving their advertising mettle. The tool will be available for all of Google’s app promotion ads, across YouTube, the Google Display Network, and AdMob.

Surojit Chatterjee, Director of Google’s Product Management and Mobile Search Ads spoke on the rollout of the feature. He said, “Google Play reaches more than 1 billion people on Android devices in more than 190 countries. With such an extensive reach, Search Ads on Google Play can provide consumers new ways to discover apps that they otherwise might have missed and help developers drive more awareness of their apps. In a few weeks, Universal App Campaigns will make it even easier to promote your apps on Google Play and across all Google properties, including: Search, YouTube, the AdMob in-app network, and the 2M+ sites on the Google Display Network.”

Google believes that the Search Ads can allow people to discover apps, which they never installed and used. But it would be interesting to watch out for the user feedback, if they’re open to welcoming one more bombardment of ad space.

Remarketing over the Internet has been sucking users whose search data is bombarded back to them in form of advertisements on every damn website, on mobiles and desktops. However in case of Google Play, it has always come under fire for not showing up apps that users are looking for, so probably now, with the association of specific keywords to throw up sponsored search results, we hope search efficiency improves.

Mobile app install ads have are seen to be rising in popularity. In the recent past, observations over Facebook suggest that their app ads are three times more expensive than their we ads. We feel that the Google’s ad format might just in a way make the rich richer, and poor, poorer. Considering how small developing houses wouldn’t be able to afford the ad space and be buried underneath the debris of the moneyed ones!

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Brand TaxiForSure Almost Dead Now; Shuts Down Operation Across 22 Cities After Ola Integration

The brand TaxiForSure is now dying a slow death; infact if we leave aside some urban cities, then its almost dead.

In a blog post, TaxiForSure announced that they are pulling out of 22 Indian cities, and transferring control to Ola. All accounts of their customers in these cities would be transferred to Ola, and the money would be directed back to the customer’s bank accounts.

Paytm wallet associated with their accounts remains untouched, and all promotional credits and offers would be silently transferred to their new Ola account.

The blog post said, “Everybody needs to change with the times, and we are doing the same. TaxiForSure is migrating to Ola in your city and now we can serve you better.”

The cities where TaxiForSure will shut down, and migrate to Ola are:

Ambala, Bhavnagar, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Hubli-Dharwad, Jabalpur, Jamnagar, Jamshedpur, Kochi, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Sholapur, Tiruchirappalli, Trivandrum, Ujjain, Varanasi, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam.

Operations in urban locations such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata etc would remain same. Recently they announced rides in Hyderabad for Rs 6/km; in Pune & Delhi for Rs 7/kms and Rs 8/km for Mumbai; which almost matches Uber rates. Hence, for time being, it seems brand TaxiForSure will only operate in metropolitan cities and Ola will take over in Tier 2 and 3 cities.

Gradual Death of a Brand

Ever since Ola acquired TaxiForSure in March this year, there has been gradual decline: not only in their branding and operations but also in their morale.

The company somehow coped with mass exodus in March, when co-founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Raghunandan G., chief financial officer Ganesh Venkataraman and human resources head Hari T.N. quit the TaxiForSure (Hari T.N. joined BigBasket)

In May, engineering head Amol Patil & chief technology officer Amitava Ghosh quit the company.

In June, Ola started integrating TaxiForSure booking into their app (for Mumbai and Delhi customers), and allowed their customers to book cabs for both the brands under the app. Such consolidation is a negative one, especially when TaxiForSure is a separate brand, wherein considerable amount of money has been spent to nurture it.

The final nail in the coffin was hammered last month, when CEO Arvind Singhal also resigned, citing personal reasons. After the acquisition, it was Arvind who was spearheading the operations, but after his resignation, not much hope remained.

At the time of acquisition, all 1700 employees of TaxiForSure were promised that they will continue to operate as a separate entity, but it seems those promises were false.

It seems the management of Ola had some different plans for TaxiForSure.

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Airtel 4G LTE Services Launched In 296 Towns Across India

In one of the biggest 4G launches till date, Bharti Airtel today announced that they have made commercial launch of its high speed 4G services (also called LTE) in 296 towns across India. Airtel had been testing its 4G services in few major cities in India till now. 4G connectivity will be available to customers across a range of smart devices including mobile phones, dongles, 4G hotspots and Wi-Fi dongles.

Airtel 4G services were first launched in the country on trial basis in April 2012, with Kolkata being the first city to get such high speed data. 14 cities besides Kolkata have Airtel 4G network at present- Bengaluru, Pune, Nagpur, Nasik, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Phagwara, Patiala, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali. With launch in 296 towns across India, Airtel 4G is now available in 310 Indian town and cities.

Along with this launch, Airtel has now introduced a new range of ‘Infinity Plans’ that will offer unlimited voice calls on mobile, along with bundled movies and music. Airtel also announced launch of ‘Wynk Movies’, a mobile application that offers mobile users thousands of movies and other video content. The app can be downloaded by users from any network, as the app is carrier agnostic.

Announcing the launch, Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO, Bharti Airtel (India & South Asia)said, “At Airtel, the customer is at the heart of everything we do and therefore we first opened our 4G network to some of them for their valuable feedback. With the help of the feedback received from the beta launches, we have now built India’s first commercial 4G network that will make high speed mobile broadband a reality.  The national roll-out today is another small step in our journey to be the most innovative and customer focused brand.”

Airtel also announced a new platform called Flexpage that will allow customers to track their data usage and get real time usage alerts.

Going forward, new customers can now order home delivery of SIM card, which will be at their door step in less than 4 hours.

Airtel 4G Prices

According to the press release, Airtel customers can enjoy 4G at 3G data priceswith packs starting at INR 25. In addition, with every 4G SIM swap, Airtel is offering six months of unlimited music streaming and downloads on ‘Wynk Music’ and five free movies per month for six months on the Eros Now channel of ‘Wynk Movies’.

The newly introduced ‘Infinity Plans’ will start at Rs.999. These high-end plans offer unlimited voice calls on mobile (first time in India) along with data benefits and access to ‘Wynk Movies’ and ‘Wynk Music’.

Airtel Keeps Promise of launching 4G Services Before Reliance Jio

Few days back, Airtel had vehemently claimed that they will be launching Pan-India 4G services before Reliance Jio and with this launch they have kept up that promise. It was widely believed that they will launch the services in 44 cities, however, with commercial launch in 296 cities, they have gone beyond general expectation.

Interestingly, many believed that Airtel will be launching their own branded 4G handsets, but the announcement does not confirm any of those rumours.

Reliance Jio on their part have said that they will be launching their much talked about 4G services by December of this year. They are undoubtedly going to give Airtel a tough time due to their rumoured cost-effective 4G plans. We will need to wait and watch.

It is now safe to say that 4G revolution has official got a kick-start in India!

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MobiKwik Will Now be Accepted at Walmart’s Best Price Modern Wholesale stores

One of the leading players in India’s mobile payment network MobiKwik has announced a partnership with Walmart. The exclusive partnership sorts allows MobiKwik to power 20 of Walmart’s Best Price Modern Wholesale stores in nine states. This deal sounds interesting as we see the Mobile Wallet concept seeping through and comfortably making its way through the offline market.

Earlier this year, the giant mobile payment company which boasts of over 17 million users had announced partnership with CCD. At this pace, the physical wallet making companies should really start worrying for business. One of their major keys to success is the kind of offers they table forth. To add up to the user’s good books, a bonus to this new feature is added. Users will be able to get instant refunds as opposed to the current policy which involves manual processing and can take up to 7-10 working days.

MobiKwik claims to currently have a retailer base of 50,000. The easy to use application helps make payments at a single tap. The company has definitely come a long way since it was founded in 2009. Little could we expect it to wave its wand over the offline market. MobiKwik has raised almost $30 million in funding till now from Sequoia Capital, American Express, Tree Line Asia, and Cisco Investments.

Notable clients of this company include Uber, Meru Cabs, Big Bazaar, WHSmith India, Café Coffee Day, PVR, BookMyShow, Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Star Sports, GoDaddy, eBay, ShopClues, Myntra, Jabong, Pepperfry, HomeShop18, MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, and Yatra.

BipinPreet Singh, Founder & CEO, MobiKwik said, “With this partnership, together Walmart and MobiKwik are bringing the power of mobile payments to the lakhs of small businesses and kirana stores in India.” He added, “Mobile is now the fastest growing channel for the Indian economy and we are happy to be a part of the Walmart India mobile story. This is just the beginning and we expect the partnership with Walmart to expand in to next level of payment and financial services for BestPrice members in the coming months.”

Scott Price, President and CEO, Walmart Asia, said, “Our new mobile app will give Best Price members a personalized and seamless shopping experience. We understand not just what customers want and need, but also where they want it and how they want to experience it. With our size and scale in India, we can serve customers quickly and more effectively with the whole range of channels we are offering.”

In recent past, mobile wallets have built a pathway into the online payments section, be it on e-commerce websites or for paying utility bills. The luring offers, which are placed forth by the mobile wallet companies seldom, go ignored by the user base.

The companies are now tapping the offline market at a fierce pace, very simply because people are not restricted to shop even while moving cashless. It’s easier to use your smartphone to make payments. They’re well on the path of replacing physical wallets, as you can safely pay and also track your expenses at a click. Considering the big brands and offline retail stores spread in the nook and corners of the country, the scope for market growth is unconstrained.

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Whoa! Now Open A Bank Account in Minutes Through Just a Mobile App!

Technology has made the world an easier place. From having cut down queues at various organisations, to bringing your fund transfers at your fingertips, it just doesn’t seem to stop. With a new app to open a bank account, the busy lives of the generation are being put to some more ease.

For the first time in the history of Indian banking, Federal Bank has launched a Mobile App for Bank Account Opening. The App was jointly launched by CA. Nilesh Shivji Vikamsey, Chairman, Federal Bank, and Mr. R Venkataraman, Managing Director, IIFL.

Two years ago when it launched FedBook, its e-Passbook App, it was a hit amongst the users. What a better way to keep a track of your bank transactions just on the go- and just so handy that you did not have to dig in the lockers for your passbook and then again to reach out to the pen to make physical data entries. Federal Bank has consistently pioneered product innovations.

In an upgrade to their older version of FedBook, Federal Bank has launched this facility, which has set the eyeballs rolling. With the new avatar of FedBook, anyone having an Aadhaar Card and PAN Card, be it from rural or urban centres, rich or poor, youth or aged, can now open a Savings Bank Account and get their Account Number instantly using a mobile from anywhere at any time.

Further, the account can also be funded with an initial remittance through online fund transfer up to a maximum amount of Rs. 10000. The App is currently available on Android and iOS phones and will soon be available in windows and blackberry phones.

3 easy steps to open an account on the app

1. Take a selfie
2. Scan your Aadhaar card
3. Scan your PAN card

And voila! You’re done!

The app will now do its job of verifying your Aadhar and will open an account for you at the click of a button. Once you open an account, the app will turn into a digital passbook.

To make India a digital place, no stone is being left unturned. Aadhar can be probably looked upon as the need of the hour, in a country, which needed a dozen full of Xeroxed, documents for the smallest of legalities. Not to forget the queues of the populous and the longest of procedures in the country with the longest constitution.

Mr. K A Babu, Head Retail Business, said, “In a country with a fast growing smart phone population, Mobile solutions are going to revolutionize the way India banks.  Through this pioneering solution we are aligning ourselves with the nation’s digital ambitions, and by facilitating the opening of a Bank account with ease using a smart phone, the Bank has added a new dimension to digital banking. We are sure that the upgraded Fedbook will take us towards the larger digital audience and change the way Indians open a Bank account”.

Now, given that you don’t need to go to the bank to transfer money-you can transfer funds, fix your deposits or even break them on the app- you can withdraw money from the ATM- and now that you can even open an account at a tap- do you think Mobile Banking will make your local bank a museum very soon?

When was the last time you visited a bank?

Leave your comments below!

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Android Users Can Now Say “OK Google” to Send Messages via WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat & Others

Google app just got an update! Now you can send your messages by saying “OK Google” on Android phone to your favorite messaging service. In the past, on saying “OK Google send a message to Sidd” it would just send via your default-messaging app. Now you can specify which app to use by saying “OK, Google, send a WhatsApp message to Sidd” and it’ll pick the right app. To kick things off, be it WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, WeChat, Telegram or NextPlus, you could pick any from the bunch and Google will send your message, giving rest to your thumbs.

You just need to make sure you have updated all your messaging apps, as well as the latest updated Google search app to avail this service. If either is outdated, you’ll just get an error message or a bunch of search results. This comes as awesome news, especially to countries that do not use SMS very much as the previous way wasn’t of much use to them.

The time to struggle on tiny keyboards and send dozens of messages a day has gone by. Google has made life easier, as you can just talk it into sending messages, much more conveniently via the desired app. Just like mailing was made quicker by the talk function, this way has made multiple-app messaging easier, however, we wonder how would private messaging be benefitted over this.

“With all of us spending so much time in apps, we’ve been working to add new ways to surface the right content from your apps at the right time. Over the past few months, you may have seen Now cards from many of your favorite apps and new ways to also get things done across your apps by just asking Googlesomething, like “Ok Google, Shazam this song” or “Show me apartments for rent near me on Zillow.” So type less and speak more—your thumbs will thank you,” posted Sunil Vemuri, Product Manager.

The function is currently available only in English, but the good news is that Google has plans to add more languages very soon.

This integration done by Google is a wider push to the launch of custom voice actions on Android back in April this year. With broadening the perks of it and opening the service to third-party apps, Google has just made way to an experience the users cannot get anywhere else!

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Do 40 Lakh Users Who Supported SabkaInternet Know What They Really Supported?

COAI or the Cellular Operators Association of India announced that their “SabkaInternet, Sab ka Vikas” campaign received support from over 40 lakh Indian mobile users in under a week’s time.

Interestingly, the press release states that SabkaInternet is actually a campaign for Net Neutrality, Net equality and consumer choice.

We have published articles earlier that clearly points that the basic premise of SabkaInternet is actually against Net Neutrality. Infact, it is a deliberate attempt by COAI to confuse people about a subject that already not understood by majority of users.

The real question is – Whether these 40 lakh people who supported for SabkaInternet Campaign know what they have approved of ?

First the backdrop..

On 22nd April, COAI launched a hurried campaign called SabkaInternet, and every statement and content that came out from this campaign was carefully engineered to disguise actual reason behind it. Even as of today, the campaign has a single page website that only has phrases that give a impression that this is a initiative for everyone’s benefit. Have a look at this page.

The entire page has phrases like “Support #sabkainternet for a Digital Bharat” or “I believe that people should have right to affordable internet”. For 99% of people, these statements are clearly positive and something that they will not think twice to extend their support.

What’s even more is, COAI has time and again said that #SabkaInternet campaign actually supports net neutrality.

Reason Why #SabkaInternet is against Net Neutrality

It’s very simple – if you read the telecom operator’s responses (except Reliance Jio) to TRAI consultation paper on OTT services and Net Neutrality, it is clear that they want to charge separately for OTT services with premise that these OTT services are eating into their revenues. In other words, it means, they want to charge separately for WhatsApp, or Facebook or Twitter and other services. While they may give it even free or at very affordable rates, they are discriminating (positive or negative) between different services on the internet and hence breaking Net Neutrality.

So, COAI saying that they support Net Neutrality is completely a hogwash. Do remember, COAI is association of these Cellular operators, so While Sabka Internet speaks of Net Neutrality and Net Equality, in reality they want to break up internet, which may prove to be too costly for consumers in coming years.

Airtel Zero and Internet.org are prime examples of such discrimination which were initiatives launched by Airtel and Reliance respectively.

Interestingly, Airtel had slammed Internet.org initiative exactly for the same reason and who incidentally went on to launch a very similar service just few weeks later.

Bottom line is – Out of 40 lakh people who supported #SabkaInternet campaign, most of them have little idea about the reality of this campaign.

Thoughts welcome!

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Idea IIN, Horlicks, Dabur, Heinz Ads Are Grossly Misleading: ASCI

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), a self-regulatory body for protection of consumer interests, has stated that Idea Cellular’s advertisement campaigns for promoting their Idea Internet Network (IIN) is misleading the public.

For the month of February, 2015 ASCI received total of 167 complaints against Indian advertisers, and out of which, they upheld 125 complaints. Interestingly, out of 125 misleading advertisements, 73 were related with health and lifestyle niche.

Along with Idea’s campaigns, ASCI also upheld complaints against Horlicks which is owned by GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd. Additionally, several complaints against educational institutions such as Institute of Management Studies (IMS), Triumphant Institute of Management Education Pvt. Ltd. (TIME), and Institute of Finance Banking & Insurance (IFBI) were also upheld.

The Misleading Ads

Idea’s Idea Internet Network:

This particular complaint was against Idea’s advertisement meant for Harayana, where it is shown that a girl empowers herself using Idea internet. As per ASCI, this ad not only disrespects the state, but also gives a false impression to all viewers that Harayana doesn’t not allow its daughters to study and Idea Internet can replace a college degree.

Similarly, several other IIN ads were also reported for highlighting false, and misleading information.

Horlicks

The complaint against Horlicks was regarding mis-information pertaining to examinations. As per various ad campaigns by Horlicks, they are trying to give an impressions that consuming Horlicks can help the student get more marks as it ‘improve concentration’.

It seems that Horlicks had deliberately targeted the examination sessions which is going on, to leverage the fear and apprehensions. ASCI has upheld the complaint.

Glucon-D Volt

This specific advertisement received complaint that it showcases kids catching Glucon D tablet directly into mouth, which is certainly dangerous.

ASCI said, “The visual of the advertisement shows kids flipping the Glucon-D Volt tablet into the air and catching in the mouth directly, which is seen as a dangerous act and is likely to encourage minors to emulate such act in a manner which could cause harm or injury”

Dabur Advertisement

Few ad were released by Dabur, which claimed that Dabur Chyawanprash can give kids 3 times more power and immunity to fight diseases, which was again without any proof or evidence.

ASCI said, “Dabur advertisement claims that Dabur Chyawanprash gives three times more immunity which makes kids strong from within and increases immunity that is the ability to fight illness by three times, were unsubstantiated,”

Recently, ASCI has initiated a unique online training module, which teaches both advertisement students and consumers to recognize ethical and factually correct ads. Participants can learn more about ASCI’s guidelines and ethical way of advertising products.

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WhatsApp Now Has 800M Active Users, 100M Added In Last 3 Months!

WhatsApp growth is not slowing down as many believe, in fact if anything it has online accelerated. WhatsApp numbers are astonishing to say the least. They have now crossed 800 million monthly Active users of which 100 million new users have been added in last 3 months alone. Simply put they are adding over 1 million users every day!

Jan Koum co-founder and CEO of WhatsApp posted an update on his Facebook page announcing this milestone.

WhatsApp – now serving 800,000,000 monthly active users. Reminder for the press out there: active and registered users are not the same thing :)

Posted by Jan Koum on Friday, April 17, 2015

He highlighted the fact that 800 million are active and registered users who have accessed or used WhatsApp atleast once in a month!

If you look at users alone, meaning people who have WhatsApp installed on their phones, but haven’t used it, the number is far more than 1 billion. Their Android App alone has been downloaded over 1 billion times, and WhatsApp reached that milestone earlier in March 2015. Here is the tweet by Jan Koum from March 11, when he announced this milestone.

There is a reason why WhatsApp growth is only accelerating. First and foremost, after Facebook acquired them for whopping USD 19 billion, they have a parent company which has unlimited supply of cash. They do not have to worry about finances. Due to this, they are able to purely concentrate on bringing new features and innovations to WhatsApp.

In Jan of this year, they launched WhatsApp Web, where users can send and receive messages even through their Desktop. Earlier this month, they activated their much talked about free voice calling feature to all the users. And although, we found that their voice quality is not top-notch, I’d not be surprised if they have already become one of the global top 3 voice calling services given their incredible user base.

And if you look at some of the numbers that WhatsApp is churning out, you will not be left with any doubt that they are on their way to become the largest communication service in the world!

Have look at the graph below – These were their numbers in January of this year.WhatsApp was logging 30 billion messages per day – that average was over 50 percent higher than Global SMS volume.

Here is a look at Facebook’s time line over the years.

June 2009	WhatsApp founded by 2 Yahoo Employees Brian Acton and Jan Koum as messaging app which was alternative to SMS. This was first ad-free messaging client and launched at price of 99 cents (it also had 1 free year subscription)
April 2011	Get $8 million Series A funding
October 2011	WhatsApp touched 1 Billion messages per day milestone
August 2012	WhatsApp grows to touch 10 Billion messages per day milestone
December 2012	WhatsApp acquisition rumours are everywhere
January 2013	They reach 18 billion messages per day milestone
April 2013	It’s reported that WhatsApp has turned down acquisition offer from Google
June 2013	WhatsApp announces they have 250 million active users. They create a record of processing 27 billion messages a day
October 2013	350 Million Active users / 20 million users in India
December  2013	400 Million users / 54 Billion messages processed at peak
February 2014	Facebook Acquires WhatsApp For A Whopping $19 Billion
April 2014	500 Million users / 700 Million photos & 100 million videos processed in a day
August 2014	600 Million Active Users / 60 million users in India
November 2014	70 million Active users in India alone
January 2015	700 million Active users globally / 30 billion messages on average every day
April 2015	800 Million Active users globally

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Flipkart Partners With Mumbai Dabbawallas For Deliveries: But Does It Make Any Sense?

Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal announced yesterday that they have joined forces with Mumbai dabbawallas for last mile delivery of their products. He shared a video wherein a dabbawalla from Mumbai is sharing the news of their association with Flipkart.

There are around 5000 dabbawallas operating in Mumbai, which are part of several ‘unions’. As per reports, one of the unions have partnered with Flipkart for products delivery.

How Will It Work?

Flipkart will create several delivery hubs covering whole Mumbai. It is being planned that dabbawallas will pick up the product from these hubs, and deliver them to the customer along with the delivery of their dabbas or lunch boxes on the way.

Hence, there will be no contract between the seller and the dabbawalla. Along with pre-paid orders, CoD orders will also be covered. Considering that dabbawallas doesn’t use paper or technology, but rely on their specific codes to operate, Flipkart will provide them specialized training and teach paper work to maintain records. Gradually, they will be introduced to handle apps and smartphones for advanced tracking.

Who Are Mumbai Dabbawallas?

Legend says that around 125 years back, a Parsi working in a bank somewhere in Mumbai decided to stop eating outside food and made a plan of getting home cooked food; and thus the first dabbawalla was born.

Over the years, they have performed their task of picking lunch boxes from homes, delivering them to the specific office, and then returning the dabba back to the home with amazing precision. Using color and alpha numeric codes, they have been able to cover the entire city using only bicycles and local trains.

Around 2,00,000 lunch boxes are delivered everyday by 5000 dabbawallas with such exact precision that their operations are ISO 9001 certified and honored with Six Sigma certification, which means that out of 6 million deliveries, they can err in only one.

Logistics experts have done research into operations, they have been invited to speak at IIMs and other management colleges and even Prince Charles have appreciated their amazing delivery mechanism and had famously invited them to his wedding.

The most famous dabbawalla is Richard Branson, who worked like a dabbawalla for a day.

.. But Dabbawallas for Ecommerce Products? Does It Makes Sense?

There is a reason Mumbai Dabbawallas have been able to deliver lunch boxes (dabba) without any error in the last 125 years: their focus, which is lunch boxes. Using codes and colors, they have mapped the houses and the offices with amazing precision and have been carrying out their operations without any hassles.

But now, along with lunch boxes, if they are asked to deliver ecommerce deliveries as well, then it may create trouble for them. And for the office workers who are expecting their lunch.

a) They use bicycles and local trains to reach their source and destination. Will they be able to handle large boxes of deliveries using these modes of transportation? And unlike Dabbas, the Flipkart deliveries will come in various shapes and sizes, Carrying these are not going to be same as carrying dabba’s for which they have specific sized crates.

b) They use colors and complex alpha numeric codes to map the addresses and to maintain the supply chain. It works because as of now, they are only delivering one product: lunch boxes. But with so many different products being ordered online, it may create a new issue. It will take time to get adapted to apps and mobile.

c) At a time when Amazon is experimenting drones to cover last mile delivery, it doesn’t make sense for Flipkart to crack a deal with dabbawallas in Mumbai as they are specialized in lunch box deliveries.

Mumbai is the economic hub of India, and a strongly connected metropolitan. Last mile delivery issue is mainly causing problems in rural areas where there is no other logistics channel to deliver goods.

As we had reported earlier, India Post is the savior of ecommerce industry in India, with their massive network of post offices and human resource, covering every inch of India. Indian Railways can prove to be an able partner for solving the last mile delivery problem as they are everywhere. The way Department of Telecom has partnered with cable operators for last mile penetration of their broadband makes sense, and will prove to be extremely productive.

Mumbai Dabbawallas are experts in delivering lunches at the right time, and entrusting them with last mile delivery of ecommerce products certainly doesn’t make sense. Not only it will dilute their focus, but it can also reduce their efficiency and definitely increase the number of errors!

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