Catherine Nichols is a young aspiring author. She’d worked hard on a novel and was happy with what she’d produced – the female protagonist was relatable, the plot was taut, and there was enough dramatic tension to keep the reader hooked. But there was a problem.
Barely a couple of days after hotel aggregator Oyo Rooms raised $100 million from Softbank, fierce rival ZO has raised $30 million from existing investors, Tiger Global Ventures and Orios venture partners.
While Flipkart’s delivery boys are on strike demanding more uniforms and better toilet facilities, the white collared employees at the company have more cause to cheer. After coming up with a spanking new office and announcing revolutionary maternity benefits and perks for employees adopting children, Flipkart today announced generous new leave policies that would allow employees greater freedom in choosing their times off.
The ecommerce marketing wars in India are heating up. After Amazon and Flipkart had sparred over Flipkart’s #AcchaKiya campaign, and Flipkart and Snapdeal CEOs had a war of words on twitter, Paytm has entered the fray, and how. In a mega 203 crore deal, Paytm has bagged sponsorship rights to all BCCI matches till 2019.
Flipkart’s recently moved to a spanking new office in Sarjapur, Bangalore. And in its design, India’s premier internet startup has outdone itself – the office is at par with any multinational office around the world.
Earlier this month, Flipkart had announced a hitherto-unseen innovation in the Indian e-commerce space – image search. With this feature, users can simply take a picture of clothes that catch their fancy, and Flipkart would automatically display items from its catalogue that look similar to the article of clothing that’s been photographed.
Flipkart, Amazon, and Snapdeal are currently locked in a slugfest for a piece of the $11 billion Indian e-commerce pie. They’re offering jaw-dropping discounts, spending millions on promotions, and even taking out snarky advertisements against their competitors, all in a bid to woo the Indian consumer. But last month, Flipkart hinted that it might do something quite extreme – the company said that it could shut down its website.
After a long period during which the company’s stock had languished on the back of concerns over the eroding relevance of the search engine, the markets had a pleasant surprise for Google’s 53,000 employees – the stock rose a stunning 16% on Friday after the announcement of the company’s quarterly earnings.
Josh Greenberg, the founder of music streaming site Grooveshark, has been found dead in his home in Gainsville, Florida. The cause of the death is unknown. Greenberg was 28.