ALTBalaji adding 25,000-30,000 paid users per day – CEO

ALTBalaji, the biggest Indian provider of original online content, is signing up paid users at the rate of 25,000-30,000 per day, said Nachiket Pantvaidya, the CEO of Balaji Telefilms, the company behind the app. “We expect to have paid users of 10 mln by the end of the year,” Pantvaidya said in an interview with BTVI. […]

Reliance Jio offers ‘play along’ features for TV broadcasters in India

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd said it has tied up with Israel-based Screenz to offer interactivity and ‘play along’ features for television programs in India. With the help of the offering, television channels can keep their viewers engaged on a realtime basis using smartphone apps. Jio has already deployed the concept for the quiz show Kaun […]

WhatsApp starts rolling out ‘verified accounts’ with IndusInd Bank

WhatsApp, the biggest interpersonal text-messaging platform in India, has started rolling out its ‘verified accounts’ feature with IndusInd Bank as one of its first customers. For now, verified accounts are limited to businesses, and will be used to assure customers that they are communicating with the official, and authorized, phone number of a business or […]

Jio users need to click on app to extend Prime membership

Contrary to rumors, Reliance Jio is not giving an automatic extension in Jio prime membership to all its users, but existing members have to ‘express their interest’ through the company’s selfcare application. “Express your interest to get complimentary membership for the next 12 months,” the company said in a ‘how to’ statement for its existing […]

Kotak Mahindra Bank grows customer base by 50% in 9 months with Aadhaar eKYC

Kotak Mahindra Bank said its customer base increased by 50% in nine months after it launched a mobile app to facilitate quick opening of bank accounts using Aadhaar. The company launched an app called 811 on March 29, 2017, three months after the Reserve Bank of India allowed banks to establish their customer’s identity by […]

Xiaomi’s new MiTV: Everything, except apps on this TV

When Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi entered the Indian market, few thought the brand would go from zero to No.1 in a matter of four years, leaving biggies such as Samsung, LG and Micromax in the dust. So total has been the disruption that even today, Samsung has still not been able to come up with […]

Google Assistant launches support for third-party apps in India

Google has activated support for third-party apps in its Google Assistant product in India. Before this, it was not possible for third-party apps to be launched or accessed via Google Assistant in India. Google Assistant is the company’s artificial intelligence-based mobile phone search and assistance app similar to Siri from Apple. To enable the new […]

PVR introduces ‘movie on demand’ with VKAAO app

PVR, India’s largest movie chain, said viewers can now watch any movie they want — including oldies, small-time and independent flicks and documentaries — by voting for them on movie-on-demand app VKAAO from Bookmyshow. When a certain number of app users sign up for a screening at a particular time and theater, the movie theater […]

Yes Bank launches impulse buying app ‘Tap To Shop’

Trying to differentiate itself from regular ecommerce websites and apps, Yes Bank has launched an impulse buying app known as Tap To Shop. Unlike regular online shopping apps, Tap To Shop will be focused exclusively on delivering deals that are not available at most times. The customer must have installed the Yes Pay wallet on […]

After Amazon, ALTBalaji signs up on Opera TV

Content app ALTBalaji said it has signed on with Opera TV, a platform that powers smart TVs, DVD players and other instruments. “All Smart TVs, Blu-ray disc players and Set-top boxes powered by Opera TV will provide instant access to over 250 hours of original content from ALTBalaji. Simultaneously, ALTBalaji Subscribers will now be able […]

Anil Ambani group relaunches Bigflix to take on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

The Anil Ambani Group has relaunched Bigflix, the homegrown competitor to Netflix, with an expanded focus covering regional language content as well as an eye on audiences outside India. The service will have 2000 HD movies in nine Indian languages to start with, the group said. These languages are Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi, Malayalam, Gujarati, […]

Net Neutrality: Vodafone wants right to manipulate Internet videos

Vodafone India said it would like to be given the power to manage the size of videos watched by users on its mobile network and lower it automatically “for overall quality welfare”. Participating in the discussions related to Net Neutrality and the powers to be given to telecom operators in traffic management, the company said it did […]

Vodafone customers to get Rs 250 cashback on Amazon Prime subscripton

Vodafone said any of its subscribers that uses its website or app to subscribe to Amazon Prime service in India will get Rs 250 cash back in the form of payment balance in their Amazon account. Technically, operators in India are forbidden from giving cheaper data access to any particular website or app, but the […]

PayTM ropes in IIT Kanpur for ‘cashless campus’

PayTM, India’s biggest mobile payment company and a minority subsidiary of Alibaba Group, said it partnered with Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur to bring its cashless payment solution to the country’s premier engineering college. Under the program, students will be able to make payments using the mobile app at hostel canteens, medical store, tea stalls, […]

Siti to launch cable broadband in five Indian cities as Jio expands

Zee Group-owned Siti Cable will launch high-speed broadband services in five different cities by June this year, company sources revealed. Siti Cable, a brand of Siti Networks, currently operates broadband services in Delhi, Hisar, Rohtak and Karnal. The new locations are likely to be outside Haryana, according to our sources. “We will be using Docsis […]

PayTM adds support for UPI payments

Customers of PayTM, India’s largest wallet service can now make payments using the Unified Payments Interface, the government of India’s open payments platform. The company has signed up with ICICI Bank be able to receive payments from its customers who are on the UPI platform using its ID ‘paytm@icici’. However, customers cannot simply transfer the money to […]

After Freecharge, Axis Bank wins virtual POS provider Paynear for its UPI platform

Paynear, which helps shopkeepers and businesses to accept card payments without buying a point-of-sale (POS) machine, has tied up with Axis Bank to implement support for UPI or Unified Payment Interface. UPI allows users to send and receive money and make payments using IDs that resemble email addresses (for example, rajesh@icici). Paynear is an Indian […]

BEST bus users can now pay using Freecharge and Ridlr

Freecharge, owned by Snapdeal, said users of BEST public transport buses in Mumbai can pay for their tickets using its wallet service. This has been achieved by tying up with Ridlr, the official mobile ticketing app partner of BEST. “BEST commuters can now pay for their bus tickets and monthly passes digitally, saving them the […]