YouTube Music is coming to the next critical battlefield for streaming music services: India. The company announced this week it’s launching its ad-supported version of YouTube Music for free in the country, as well as YouTube Music Premium, its subscription that offers background listening, offline downloads and an ad-free experience for ₹99 a month. In […]
View More YouTube Music and YouTube Premium come to IndiaCategory: india
Wattpad gains strategic investment from Times Bridge to further expand in India
Wattpad is further expanding into Asia with a new partnership and undisclosed strategic investment from Times Bridge, the global investment arm of the Times Group in India. The deal aims to help the storytelling community establish a larger presence in the country where it already counts over 2.6 million monthly users who have shared more […]
View More Wattpad gains strategic investment from Times Bridge to further expand in IndiaGoogle has quietly added DuckDuckGo as a search engine option for Chrome users in ~60 markets
In an update to the chromium engine, which underpins Google’s popular Chrome browser, the search giant has quietly updated the lists of default search engines it offers per market — expanding the choice of search product users can pick from in markets around the world. Most notably it’s expanded search engine lists to include pro-privacy […]
View More Google has quietly added DuckDuckGo as a search engine option for Chrome users in ~60 marketsAgroStar gets $27M Series C to give more Indian farmers increase crop production with data analytics
Indian agriculture tech startup AgroStar announced today that it has raised a $27 million Series C for its platform, which helps farmers increase crop production, manage orders and buy supplies online. The round was led by Bertelsmann India Investments, with participation from returning investors Accel, Chiratae Ventures and Aavishkaar Bharat Fund. AgroStar bills its app […]
View More AgroStar gets $27M Series C to give more Indian farmers increase crop production with data analyticsAcko, a digital insurance provider in India, raises another $65M at a $300M valuation
Acko — a startup out of India that has taken on the country’s antiquated insurance industry with a digital-first product for drivers and others in transportation-related scenarios (for example, cancelled ticket insurance) — has raised more funding as it passes 20 million customers on its books. The company has closed a Series C of $65 million […]
View More Acko, a digital insurance provider in India, raises another $65M at a $300M valuationThe Juggernaut is a subscription media company for the South Asian diaspora
Everyone and their dog seems to have an email newsletter today, but what happens if and when yours takes off? Some have gone down the paid route, but another credible alternative is to turn it into a subscription media business. That’s a route that The Juggernaut, a new pay-to-play publication targeted at the Indian diaspora, […]
View More The Juggernaut is a subscription media company for the South Asian diasporaIt’s time to disrupt nuclear weapons
Beatrice Fihn Contributor Share on Twitter Beatrice Fihn is the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and the winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. “Atomic bombs are primarily a means for the ruthless annihilation of cities.” Those are the words of Leo Szilard, one of the scientists who pushed for […]
View More It’s time to disrupt nuclear weaponsThe other smartphone business
With the smartphone operating system market sewn up by Google’s Android platform, which has a close to 90% share globally, leaving Apple’s iOS a slender (but lucrative) premium top-slice, a little company called Jolla and its Linux-based Sailfish OS is a rare sight indeed: A self-styled ‘independent alternative’ that’s still somehow in business. The Finnish […]
View More The other smartphone businessBike sharing pioneer Mobike is retreating to China
In a telling sign of the state of bike sharing, Mobike, a once red-hot startup that attracted billions in investment capital, is closing down all international operations and putting its sole focus on China. On Friday, Mobike laid off its operations teams in APAC, which entailed more than 15 full-time employees and many more contractors […]
View More Bike sharing pioneer Mobike is retreating to ChinaWho are the next billion users and what do they want?
Entrepreneurs and tech executives are widening their gazes outside of developed nations for their next source of growth. Ubiquitous cheap phones and increasingly affordable phone plans such as Jio in India are helping another billion users join the internet. What do those users want though, and how are they the same and different than existing […]
View More Who are the next billion users and what do they want?The Khashoggi murder isn’t stopping SoftBank’s Vision Fund
Money talks in the startup community, especially when SoftBank comes knocking with the megabucks of its Vision Fund. Despite the public outcry around the firm’s dependence on money from Saudi Arabia in the wake of that country’s assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, deal flow for Softbank’s Vision Fund appears to be back to […]
View More The Khashoggi murder isn’t stopping SoftBank’s Vision FundGoogle introduces educational app Bolo to improve children’s literacy in India
Google is expanding its suite of apps designed for the Indian market with today’s launch of a new language-learning app aimed at children, called Bolo. The app, which is aimed at elementary school-aged students, leverages technology like Google’s speech recognition and text-to-speech to help kids learn to read in both Hindi and English. To do […]
View More Google introduces educational app Bolo to improve children’s literacy in India