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<ul><li><keyword id="8484717" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="uber-users" source="Orion">Uber users</keyword> will soon be able to book rides through a chatbot via <keyword id="790242" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="whatsapp" source="Orion">WhatsApp</keyword>. </li><li>In the first instance, the feature will only be rolled out in Delhi NCR. </li><li>The chatbot will support English and Hindi languages to ensure wide compatibility. </li><li>Read the article below to understand how the feature works. </li></ul>Uber is developing a new feature allowing people to book cabs via WhatsApp. WhatsApp is among the most popular messaging platforms with a user-friendly interface that can make booking rides effortless for many. Earlier in December 2021, this feature was introduced and tested in Lucknow. The feature will be available from this week; initially, only the Delhi/NCR residents will have access to it. People can book a ride either from the Uber application or through an official Uber chatbot on WhatsApp. The chatbot will support both English and Hindi languages to make it suitable for people of different regions. Uber said, "We recognise that to keep expanding access to our services, we need to meet users where they are. And in India, that means WhatsApp, one of India’s most popular chat apps." How to book a <keyword id="2818858" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="uber-ride" source="Orion">Uber ride</keyword> via WhatsApp- <ul><li>Send ‘Hi’ to Uber's Business Whatsapp number.</li><li>Select the language from English and Hindi.</li><li>The chatbot will ask you to write the pickup location and send you the location options to choose from per your requirement. OR you can directly share your location.</li><li>After this, you will be asked to write the drop location and send you the location options to choose from per your requirement.</li><li>The chatbot will ask for an OTP sent to your number to confirm that it’s you.</li><li>After verifying the OTP, you will be given ride options to select.</li></ul>(This feature is applicable for all kinds of rides like cars, autos, and bikes.) <ul><li>Then you will be given the option to edit details, cancel or confirm the ride.</li><li>After confirming the ride, all the vehicle and driver details will be shared with you. </li></ul>With no compromise on safety features and a person's riding experience, this new feature can be an easy way to book rides with no additional app required. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/how-to-use-dual-camera-feature-on-instagram/articleshow/93295328.cms" style="">What is the dual camera feature on Instagram, and how to use it?</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/here-are-the-cities-that-saw-the-most-hiring-in-the-tech-industry-in-fy-2022/slidelist/93320909.cms">Here are the cities that saw the most hiring in the tech industry in FY 2022</a>

How to book an Uber ride through WhatsApp

<ul><li>WhatsApp <keyword id="6355515" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="business" source="Orion">Business</keyword> has now become a survival tool for <keyword id="15175643" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="solopreneurs" source="Orion">solopreneurs</keyword> who cannot afford to employ staff to take care of customers.</li><li>Features in WhatsApp Business allow solopreneurs to grow customer networks by spending as little as ₹1,000 to market their goods and services on Meta’s other social platforms.</li><li>Features like “away” and “auto reply” help solopreneurs handle a larger number of customers with ease.</li></ul> Ghosting is rude, but not replying to a customer on time can cost your business a lot of money. Shikha Yadav, a beautician in Lucknow, learned this the hard way when she could not take her regular customer’s call. For solopreneurs – who don’t have full blown customer service teams – WhatsApp Business has come as a lifesaver as it enables them to answer queries when they are busy. In fact, WA Business is now a shortcode for success when it comes to small and even medium businesses as this app has solved many problems of such entities and given them affordable tools to expand their reach and fetched new customers for their offerings. Automation and bots are not just for the big businesses. Yadav used to service her customers in Lucknow by visiting their homes but started losing her regular customers as she could not take their calls while she was attending to others. Soon one of her customers, in frustration, advised her to download the WhatsApp Business app to prevent customer attrition with the “auto reply” and “away” features. Explains Yadav, “The ‘away message’ feature has made my life simpler. My clients now receive a timely response from me, which has helped me maintain my relationships with them.” <div type="image" title="Shikha Yadav, a beautician in Lucknow is using WhatsApp Business for her salon service" msid="94673543" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Shikha Yadav, a beautician in Lucknow is using WhatsApp Business for her salon service&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The pandemic hurt small and large businesses alike, but for solopreneurs like Yadav, life came to a standstill and connecting with her existing and new customer base was a huge challenge. Many solopreneurs – mainly standalone service providers like beauticians, tuition teachers, tailors, handicraft manufacturers and even small farmers – who lost their existing customer base due to the disruptions and lockdowns during the pandemic, have now started using technology tools to rebuild their customer networks by showcasing their products and services through WhatsApp. Social commerce is the new kid in town Over the last few years, even grandparents have taken to social platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. Now, these social platforms are being leveraged by housewives and solopreneurs to create an income from their social networks by selling them unique products and services. The seamless interface between the three social platforms is also helping these small businesses market their products and services. Explains beautician Yadav, “I am not very well educated, but I can still use WhatsApp Business App easily.” Just as chatting with friends and family on WhatsApp is easy, conducting business on it is easier. The social platform has become a tool that many housewives use to resell products they buy from other e-commerce platforms in smaller towns and villages. The seamless access to Facebook and Instagram, where they can boost their posts to help more customers discover their products and services, has also helped solopreneurs immensely. Says Yadav, “For a small amount, I can boost my post and promote my services on Facebook and Instagram. In fact, I am now able to showcase my services through my own videos and that has really helped me get more clients.” Technology tools are spawning new businesses In many cases, the WhatsApp Business app has actually spawned new businesses that did not even exist prior to the pandemic. Rajeev Khera’s Chakki Peesing is a company that grinds and delivers freshly ground pulses, grains and wheat to consumers in Gurugram. Khera’s family comes from Madhya Pradesh and it was during the pandemic, while providing grains to migrant workers camping in his society, an idea to start his own business was born. The best variety of wheat called Sharbati comes from Madhya Pradesh and Khera wanted to bring the flour made from that wheat to his customers across Delhi NCR. In 2020, Khera decided to start a hyperlocal business of supplying freshly-ground flour to customers in Gurugram. Chakki Peesing started with one chakki – Khera insists it is not a flour mill but a traditional way of grinding flour at low intensity to preserve its goodness. Khera started with 100 customers and now serves 5,000 spread across Delhi NCR. He explains: “Our fundamental proposition is against packaged atta (flour) as preservatives are added to it to increase shelf life. Our promise is to serve freshly-ground flour from the best wheat. When we started in 2020, the challenge was to reach our clientele, who are mostly women as they buy groceries. Having WhatsApp Business helped us connect with our customers.” The pitch to eat healthy is influencing choices of consumers across categories and Khera has found a sweet spot with his offering. His offering now includes flour of different kinds and even mixes. He offers consultation and customised atta mixes to his clients with different needs. <div type="image" title="Rajiv Khera uses WhatsApp Business app to manage customers in different locations" msid="94673662" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Rajiv Khera uses WhatsApp Business app to manage customers in different locations&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> How does WhatsApp Business app work? The WhatsApp Business app allows entrepreneurs to showcase their offerings through a catalogue and the cart feature enables consumers to choose multiple products and send the order as a single message. Explains Khera, “The messages come to us in the form of a cart. We also used the quick-reply feature to answer frequently-asked questions on the products.” This has helped many solopreneurs like Khera save time and manpower in the form of automated replies. WhatsApp Business also allows multiple groups to be managed by the same entrepreneur – Khera uses it to manage customers in different locations of NCR. Now Chakki Peesing is looking to go national with its offerings by tying up with smaller entrepreneurs across India. Making it easy for customers to connect WhatsApp Business enables users to greet new customers automatically with a customary welcome message, which can be automated. It also allows users to use shortcuts to respond to common questions fast and reply instantly to customers, even when they are not available. The app also helps users to stay organised by keeping business and personal conversations separate. Marketing their businesses is also easy – the app has simple tools that allow them to promote their posts on Instagram and Facebook. A tuition teacher or a saree seller in Indore can now reach a much wider audience through the <keyword id="15175642" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="WhatApp-Business" source="Orion">WhatApp Business</keyword> app. When the entire world was shut down due to the pandemic, Jeevan Handicrafts in Rajasthan found no takers for its handicrafts that it used to sell to tourists. Explains Deepak Badaria, who runs the small handicrafts business in Rajasthan: “We were also exploring new things during the pandemic and after the lockdown I heard of the WhatsApp Business App. I quickly organised my products into a catalogue and started sharing it with friends and other groups. Before launching his business on WhatsApp, my company Jeevan Handicrafts used to handle only 2-3 customers per day but today, with this feature, we are able to manage 150-200 customers per day.” Jeevan Handicrafts has customers even from the UK and the US as he promotes his wares on Facebook and Instagram using his laptop. Most of his customers are wholesalers and they directly get his WhatsApp Business number from Facebook and contact him. <div type="image" title="Jeevan Handicrafts has customers from the UK and the US as he promotes his business using Whatsapp Business" msid="94673727" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Jeevan Handicrafts has customers from the UK and the US as he promotes his business using Whatsapp Business&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Transparency and better pricing The search for better prices took the founder of Mechanic Guru, Gaurav, to WhatsApp Business after he started his business that sought to connect car owners with garages that could repair and serve all kinds of cars. He tied up with garages across Gurugram to provide car owners the ease of booking slots to repair their cars. However, building a customer network was not easy – even after he hired a team to market his business on digital platforms. He switched to the app and brought his existing customers on the app to provide them with live updates. The purpose was to provide transparency in pricing. Says Gaurav, “I spend ₹1,000 a week on promotions and it fetches me 25 queries.” He manages to gain customer leads from social platforms and services them on WhatsApp by sharing his catalogue. Car owners can also book their slots for car services using a QR Code or by simply sending a message on the Mechanic Guru’s WhatsApp business account number. <div type="image" title="The founder of Mechanic Guru, Gaurav, used WhatsApp Business to tie up with garages across Gurugram" msid="94673817" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The founder of Mechanic Guru, Gaurav, used WhatsApp Business to tie up with garages across Gurugram&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> WhatsApp Business has given a <keyword id="2291542" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="new-lease-of-life" source="Orion">new lease of life</keyword> to many solopreneurs who had lost their markets and customer bases after the lockdowns began in 2020. Not only have small businesses got a new lease of life, but the suite of services that WhatsApp Business offers is also spawning new ideas like Chakki Peesing. For those who want to spread their wings and go national or even global, WhatsApp Business offers an architecture that allows APIs to plug in and use the existing platform to service customers at a much larger scale. SEE ALSO <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/india-emerges-as-the-worlds-largest-producer-consumer-of-sugar/articleshow/94664666.cms">India emerges as the world's largest producer, consumer of sugar</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/india-incs-foreign-commercial-borrowings-rise-by-4-6-in-august/articleshow/94664946.cms">India Inc's foreign commercial borrowings rise by 4.6% in August</a>

WhatsApp Business gives a new lease of life to solopreneurs across India and Bharat

<ul><li>In our latest interview series, we talk to brands to understand how they are coping with the new normal and their strategies towards navigating these difficult times.</li><li>Considering the <keyword id="34478" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="auto-industry">auto industry</keyword> has seen a huge impact, we spoke to leaders from <keyword id="42747" type="DOMAIN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tata-Motors">Tata Motors</keyword> including <keyword id="3752605" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="vivek-srivatsa">Vivek Srivatsa</keyword>, Head – Marketing, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, <keyword id="948650" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ashesh-Dhar">Ashesh Dhar</keyword>, Head – Sales, Marketing and Customer Care, Electric Mobility Business Unit and <keyword id="6907216" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="UT-Ramprasad">UT Ramprasad</keyword>, General Manager, Marketing Communications, Commercial Vehicle Business Unit.</li><li>The three leaders told us about all that is happening at the organization and how they are preparing for an uncertain future.</li></ul> The Indian auto industry has been having a tough year. It was struggling with negative consumer sentiments and a drop in sales even before <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus">Coronavirus</keyword> hit the world, bringing it to a standstill. China accounts for a whooping 27% of India’s auto part imports. However, if reports are to be believed, experts expect things to get better closer to the festive season. Having said that, how consumers react to the situation is something that we will need to wait and watch. To understand how the auto industry has been reacting and coping with the current situation, we reached out to Tata Motors. Vivek Srivatsa, Head – Marketing, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors, Ashesh Dhar, Head – Sales, Marketing and Customer Care, Electric Mobility Business Unit, Tata Motors and UT Ramprasad, General Manager, Marketing Communications, Commercial Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors gave us a sense of all that has been happening at the organization and how the brand will adapt to the changing times and consumer needs. Excerpts: Q) The auto industry had been witnessing a slump even before the Covid <keyword id="91743" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="lockdown">lockdown</keyword> came about. With showrooms closed for over a month now, how have you modified your marketing strategies during these times? At Tata Motors, we have been constantly working towards staying in touch with our customers during this difficult time. Since the lockdown was announced, our business units have been actively engaging with our customers on various platforms. For instance, our call centre executives, product specialists and dealer staffs are constantly engaging with potential buyers through phone calls, WhatsApp video calls, messages and emails to provide them with essential information during these times. Similarly, we have launched Click to Drive, which is an end-to-end digital sales initiative by us, that has taken our entire passenger vehicle product sales online. This initiative will help customers buy cars from the safety and comfort of their homes. It has been integrated with all Tata Motors dealers from more than 750 outlets across the country and will also offer vehicle home delivery for our customers at a later date. We are also providing our customers with attractive, limited period offers on their purchases in addition to facilitating up to 100% on road funding on our entire range of cars and SUVs. Customers can also take advantage of the long tenure EMI schemes (up to 8 years) thus lowering the amount of their monthly EMI payment. The option of customising EMI payments every year in line with their cash flows offers additional convenience and enhances benefits. Additionally, to thank and support the brave COVID frontline warriors (doctors, healthcare professionals and police), we have special offers as well. Tata Motors has virtually launched some of its BSVI models from the commercial vehicle portfolio, using digital platforms. Additionally, the sales teams are also engaging with the customers all across the country, via digital communication apps, to disseminate information about the newly-launched products and also accept bookings. To recognise the efforts of truck drivers and acknowledging their role on the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic, Tata Motors has launched a #ThankYouIndianTruckers campaign. Through this campaign, Tata Motors aims to uplift the morale of the truck drivers. Tata Motors has also been providing various facilities across the country for the truck drivers through its dealerships, workshops and Saarthi Aaram Kendras, while also engaging with the ones that are on highways by offering free food, sanitisers and masks. On the aftersales front, we have extended our warranty and free service period for all our PV and CV owners, whose expiration date falls within the dates of the lockdown. Q) The way retail works might see a complete overhaul. People might not want to come to showrooms for a while now. How are you preparing for the future which right now looks pretty uncertain? Auto is a big spender on mediums like OOH, Print and Experiential. Since these three mediums have been really impacted, lots of brands are now shifting marketing dollars to other mediums. Are you doing this too, and will you stick to this strategy even after the lockdown? The online model will not completely replace the traditional model of purchasing. However, the digital model is aimed at minimizing the amount of physical contact that the traditional model requires. As of present day, customer interaction takes place right from the first step till the end. A customer starts searching for a product 6 months before he/she actually purchases it, thereby making the overall process last longer as compared to the previous process timeline, which was 3 weeks. Therefore, the digital sale process is more detailed and customer focused. Furthermore, digital product demos will play an important role in making product exploration more experiential for the customer. Q) A lot of the appeal for consumers when wanting to buy a car comes from the touch and feel factor. Now since that isn't really happening, how have you been innovating to reach out to consumers with the help of technology? Our PV customers can explore and discover our products with the innovative digital brochures that we have made available on our Click to Drive platform. The video brochure helps customers discover each car and its features in great detail. Furthermore, the test drive is also a touch and feel element of the car-buying process. Therefore, we will provide test drives for customers who ask for them while following social distancing and basic hygiene guidelines. Potentially, only one customer will be able to drive the test vehicle, while a dealer staff member sits in the rear seat, in order to follow the social distancing norms. We will also ensure that the test drive vehicle is sanitized along with putting protective covers on interior parts that come in contact frequently with the customer. On the CV front, Tata Motors has been using its social media channels to reach out to its customers to educate them on the profit-potential-increasing value adds and upgrades to the BSVI-compliant range of commercial vehicles. The series of videos are being released on the company’s social media platforms. The benefits – which are extremely customer centric – can be easily communicated to all the stakeholders in the commercial vehicle ecosystem through the videos, as well as other forms of content and with easy access to the internet. Q) During adverse times like these, people might not think of buying a car and might not want to see ads around that too. So when you come out with any kind of consumer facing communication, what is it that you're trying to achieve? We understand that it is important to bring the human aspect of the brand across the channels of communication. Our aim has always been to communicate that we are constantly available for our customers and are more of a permanent resource than just an automotive brand trying to sell vehicles. On the PV front, we are keeping our customers entertained with the help of online <a href="https://twitter.com/TataMotors_Cars/status/1253600686304043008?s=20">puzzles and games</a> and are ensuring that they are taken care of by providing them vehicle care taking tips during the lockdown. On the social media platforms, our <keyword id="9228552" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="electric-mobility-business-division">Electric Mobility Business Division</keyword> changed track from being in active sales mode, treading different paths, to help keep consumers informed and engaged. Leveraged moment marketing at various appropriate occasions, with reasonable success. Also ran a series of campaign, advising our newest customers on Nexon EV Care Tips and the precautions they should take while keeping their newly acquired Nexon EVs in good condition, during the lockdown. Q) As marketers, what have your key learnings from these past few weeks been? The current pandemic has challenged individuals and businesses across the world which has led to the emergence of a ‘new normal’. It has changed the way brands look at conventional marketing techniques. Due to the near complete shutdown of print media, and the implication of social distancing norms, brands are now leveraging digital platforms for product and message positioning. Brands have had to reposition themselves digitally which has now become an indispensable aspect of marketing to their customers. Q) While it's difficult to predict at this point, do you expect things to get better for the auto industry in the second half of the year, during the festive months, by when hopefully things will be more under control? Although the situation is uncertain right now, the pandemic has brought about a significant change in the perspective regarding transportation usage in the minds of consumers. As people adapt to the norms of social distancing and move away from using public transport, the demand for personal vehicles is expected to go up, thereby driving the demand for personal mobility. However, time will tell what the exact outcome is.

Marketing in the times of Covid-19: Tata Motors

<ul><li>A student of <keyword id="9732289" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="b-sc-physical-science">B.Sc Physical Science</keyword>, who did not wish to be identified, said that the paper was quite tough and in a situation, when classes could not happen properly, it was unjust for students. </li><li><keyword id="108412" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Abha">Abha</keyword> Dev Habib, a professor of Miranda House, said most of the students in her class did not get a confirmation mail after uploading their answer sheets. The students then mailed to the varsity website their answer sheets and got an auto-generated response. </li><li>Pankaj Garg, a professor of Rajdhani College, said that the <keyword id="9732288" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="main-problem">main problem</keyword> that students faced was in uploading the answer sheets. </li></ul> <keyword id="6360099" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="delhi-university">Delhi University</keyword>'s online open book examinations for final-year undergraduate courses began on Monday with many students complaining about receiving two <keyword id="76676" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Question-papers">question papers</keyword> and difficulty in uploading answer sheets. The exams began at 7.30 am and are being held in three shifts. Zubair Khan, a student of School of Open Learning (SOL), said, "I had my Hindi exam today according to the date-sheet. When I opened the portal for downloading my question paper, I found that two question papers were uploaded -- one of Hindi and another of the paper scheduled for August 13. I sent mails to the SOL but there was no response. I consulted a professor who advised me to attempt the paper scheduled for today." Another student, Deepak Gupta, said he was not sure if he could successfully upload his answer sheets before the scheduled time of 11.30 am. "It was 11.28 am by the time I finished creating PDF files (of my answer sheets). I tried to upload them but they didn't get uploaded. I have mailed them to the designated ID but do not know whether they will be accepted," he added. A student of B.Sc Physical Science, who did not wish to be identified, said that the paper was quite tough and in a situation, when classes could not happen properly, it was unjust for students. Abha Dev Habib, a professor of Miranda House, said most of the students in her class did not get a confirmation mail after uploading their answer sheets. The students then mailed to the varsity website their answer sheets and got an auto-generated response. Pankaj Garg, a professor of Rajdhani College, said that the main problem that students faced was in uploading the answer sheets. "They faced problems in uploading PDF files and some of the students said that if they could upload answers to two questions, they could not upload the answers to the third. They were not sure whether their answer sheets were uploaded. The college received answer sheets on email post 11.30 am, which was the scheduled time," he said. Garg also said that teachers will face issues while evaluating answer sheets. "There is a fair possibility that there would be swapping of the pages while scanning and uploading, this would disturb the sequence.... Teachers have to be very very careful in connecting all those pages which belongs to the same question," he added. While scanning some pages may be blurred and it would be difficult to read them carefully and it would be more difficult to connect to the next page and hence the continuity of the answer would be lost, he added. For teachers, the most challenging point would be marking of pages, it seems that evaluation would take much longer, he stressed. The exams have been postponed several times. The Delhi University Teachers' Association had been demanding that the exams be scrapped and the students evaluated on the basis of previous performances and an internal assessment. <keyword id="1204125" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-Delhi-High-Court">The Delhi High Court</keyword> gave its nod to the university to conduct the exams. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/these-are-the-tabletop-airports-in-india-two-of-them-have-seen-major-plane-crashes-in-last-10-years/articleshow/77427972.cms">These are the tabletop airports in India – two of them have seen major plane crashes in last 10 years</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/how-karan-bajaj-sold-his-less-than-18-month-old-startup-white-hat-jr-to-byjus/articleshow/77415329.cms">A WhatsApp message, six weeks of talks and a $300 million deal – how Karan Bajaj sold his less than 18-month old startup White Hat Jr to Byju’s</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/mukesh-ambani-is-now-the-worlds-fourth-richest-person-after-he-beat-louis-vuitton-owner-bernard-arnault/articleshow/77431776.cms">Mukesh Ambani is now the world’s fourth-richest person after he beat Louis Vuitton owner Bernard Arnault</a>

DU online open book exam begins, students complain about difficulty in uploading answer sheets

<ul class="summary-list"></ul>Hiya! Getting old is relating to this grandmother who <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.insider.com/woman-accidentally-swallowed-an-airpod-instead-of-her-vitamins-2023-9">swallowed an AirPod</a> instead of her vitamins while she was distracted. Speaking of Big Tech, it's a big day for the industry as the DOJ's antitrust trial against Google starts today. <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-lawsuit-antitrust-case-doj-search-agreements-apple-2023-9">More in today's big story</a> about the massive implications of the case. What's on deck: <ul><li>Markets: Inside<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/deutsche-bank-to-launch-generative-ai-tools-hire-hundreds-engineers-2023-9"> one bank's AI plans</a>, including hundreds of new hires.</li><li>Tech: The AI wars roll on, with Meta reportedly<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-ai-model-powerful-gpt-4-openai-2023-9"> developing a new, powerful model</a>.</li><li>Business: How employers<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-companies-are-monitoring-how-full-offices-are-2023-9"> are keeping track</a> of how full the office is.</li></ul>But first, we're going to trial.If this was forwarded to you, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/insider-today">sign up here.</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-lawsuit-antitrust-case-doj-search-agreements-apple-2023-9"></a><div type="image" title="Google" height="1332" width="1776" msid="103611040" hostid="261" sizebytes="262804"></div>The big story"Google it."The phrase has become shorthand for looking something up on the internet, and it's no surprise why. Google is the default search engine almost everywhere you look, from your phone to computers or tablets. Even if you don't start your search at the tech giant's website, there's a good chance you'll eventually get redirected there. And it's no coincidence that's the case. Google has spent billions of dollars ensuring it's the go-to search engine. It's also a strategy the Department of Justice argues is "anticompetitive and exclusionary" in a landmark trial for Big Tech kicking off today.Insider's Hugh Langley, our resident Google expert, details what's at stake in the<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-lawsuit-antitrust-case-doj-search-agreements-apple-2023-9"> antitrust case between the DOJ and Google</a>. The trial is the biggest to hit the tech industry since the<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-microsoft-antitrust-case-history-outcome-2020-7"> government sued Microsoft in the late 1990s</a>.Back then, the DOJ alleged Microsoft was forcing PC manufacturers to make its Internet Explorer the default browser on their computers, thereby stifling competition. Starting today, the DOJ will argue Google squashed its competition by paying Apple and others to be the default search provider, all while deterring users from rival services. Google argues, among other things, that it's not illegal to be a strong product everyone likes."People don't use Google because they have to — they use it because they want to," Google's president of global affairs, Kent Walker, told Hugh in a statement. Walker also pointed to how much has changed in the almost three years since this case was first filed, including the rise of AI, which represents more competition for Google. The knock-on effects of this case go beyond just Google, though. Apple executives, for example, could be called to testify during the trial, something<a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/apple-execs-lose-bid-block-testimony-google-antitrust-trial-2023-09-05/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> it fought hard against</a>. More broadly, the case is a bellwether for how the government could argue future cases against Big Tech companies in the modern era. The<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-ftc-suit-how-insider-investigation-led-to-crackdown-2023-6"> Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon</a> this year in a case that argues the tech giant lured unwitting customers into Prime subscriptions that were difficult to cancel. The suit is a result of an<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-ftc-probe-customer-complaints-sign-ups-internal-documents-2022-3"> Insider investigation</a> in early 2022. And a trial for the<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ruling-ftc-meta-facebook-lawsuit-instagram-whatsapp-can-proceed-2022-1"> FTC's antitrust case against Meta</a> over its acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp is currently in the discovery phase. Each case is unique, but their focus on monopolistic behavior means the Google trial could set precedents followed by both sides.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-lawsuit-antitrust-case-doj-search-agreements-apple-2023-9">Read the full story here. </a>3 things in markets<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-us-dollar-became-dominant-citibank-walter-wriston-2023-9"></a><div type="image" title="A collage of the history of Citibank." height="2000" width="4000" msid="103611043" hostid="261" sizebytes="199526"></div><ul><li>How the US dollar took over the world. An excerpt from Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman's new book, "<a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-us-dollar-became-dominant-citibank-walter-wriston-2023-9">Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy</a>," details former Citicorp CEO and chairman Walter Wriston's plan for creating a private global payments system.</li><li>Deutsche Bank's AI plans include hundreds of new hires and dozens of pilots. Gil Perez, the bank's chief innovation officer, said the German lender wants to at least <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/deutsche-bank-to-launch-generative-ai-tools-hire-hundreds-engineers-2023-9">double its AI employee base</a> of about 300 in the next 12 months. But challenges, including determining the tech's ROI, remain. </li><li>Jamie Dimon has some concerns about the economy. The CEO of JPMorgan doesn't think we should <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/jpmorgan-jamie-dimon-bank-stocks-fed-capital-rules-economic-outlook-2023-9">mistake current economic strength</a> for a "booming environment for years." Dimon said he's "on heightened edge of caution."</li></ul>3 things in tech<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/some-tesla-engineers-hated-cybertruck-design-elon-musk-biography-2023-9"></a><div type="image" title="Tesla CEO Elon Musk gestures toward a Cybertruck" height="2827" width="3769" msid="103611048" hostid="261" sizebytes="193078"></div><ul><li>Some Tesla engineers "hated" the original Cybertruck design. According to the new Elon Musk biography, the engineers secretly started designing an alternative. "They were like, 'You can't be serious.' They didn't want to have anything to do with it. It was just too weird," <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/some-tesla-engineers-hated-cybertruck-design-elon-musk-biography-2023-9">the design chief</a> Franz von Holzhausen told Musk biographer Walter Isaacson.</li><li>Meta is reportedly building an AI model that's as powerful as GPT-4. It's expected to be much faster than Meta's recently released Llama 2 model, per the Wall Street Journal. This gauntlet highlights how <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-ai-model-powerful-gpt-4-openai-2023-9">the AI race is heating up</a>.</li><li>Microsoft employees can exceed expectations but still fall short of an "exceptional" rating. "Microsoft has an ambitious mission, and our customers and partners have high expectations for us that increase every year," <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-employee-review-system-highest-ratings-explained-2023-9">the internal guideline</a> states.</li></ul>3 things in business<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-workers-worry-tech-ai-may-replace-jobs-gallup-poll-2023-9"></a><div type="image" title="illustration of robot pulling chair away from office worker" height="1385" width="1846" msid="103611050" hostid="261" sizebytes="23308"></div><ul><li> One in five college-educated workers worry that AI will replace their jobs. This is a <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-workers-worry-tech-ai-may-replace-jobs-gallup-poll-2023-9">7% increase</a> compared to when the survey was conducted in 2021. The most concerned groups were young, college-educated people who make under $100,000 per year.</li><li>Customer data, transactions, financials: Investors are demanding to see numbers to back up startup pitches. Startup founders said VCs are increasingly demanding <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vcs-are-demanding-founders-have-the-numbers-to-back-up-their-pitches-2023-9">detailed data</a> about their companies before considering a deal.</li><li> Two under-the-radar methods companies are using to track how full offices are. As companies push for in-person work, they're also <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-companies-are-monitoring-how-full-offices-are-2023-9">starting to track attendance</a>. Some, for example, are using sensors that can track when someone is sitting at their desk or in conference rooms.</li></ul>In other news<ul><li>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admits that Kyiv took too long to begin its <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/volodymyr-zelenskyy-admitted-ukraine-waited-too-long-counteroffensive-russia-2023-9">counteroffensive against Russia</a>.</li><li>A <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-quest-pro">full review</a> of the Meta Quest Pro AR-VR headset.</li><li>Researchers are developing a fabric that can <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fabric-technology-keep-skin-nine-degrees-cooler-2023-9">keep skin nine degrees Fahrenheit cooler</a> than cotton.</li><li>The <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/10-cities-globally-most-high-net-worth-wealthy-people-2023-9">top 10 cities</a> around the world with the most wealthy residents.</li><li>A man is stockpiling incandescent light bulbs now that they're <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/man-buys-incandescent-light-bulbs-stockpile-ban-2023-9">largely banned</a>.</li><li>Farewell to <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-phasing-out-self-serve-soda-fountains-2023-9">self-serve soda machines</a> at McDonalds.</li><li>The "eerie" experience of watching the newly public <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/january-6-security-camera-footage-release-house-republicans-2023-9">security camera footage</a> from the January 6 US Capitol attack.</li></ul>What's happening today<ul><li>The MTV Video Music Awards are tonight, hosted by Nicki Minaj. For the first time in the 40 years that the VMAs have been held, all the artist of the year nominees are women: Doja Cat, Shakira, Beyoncé, Karol G, and Nicki Minaj.</li><li>Apple product launch. It's expected to announce a range of products, including a series of new iPhones.</li><li>The Davis Cup Finals kick off today. The men's group tennis tournament pits 16 teams — each representing a different country — against each other. Team US consists of Frances Tiafoe, Austin Krajicek, Mackenzie McDonald, Tommy Paul, and Rajeev Ram.</li><li>"Guinness World Records 2024" comes out today. It's the 67th edition of the records and will feature new and updated achievements.</li></ul><a href="https://www.insider.com/amtrak-auto-train-worth-the-price-pros-tips-2023-9"></a><div type="image" title="Amtrak Auto train on tracks" height="2807" width="3743" msid="103611051" hostid="261" sizebytes="1136896"></div>For your bookmarks"I've taken the Amtrak Auto Train, where you take your car with you, over a dozen times." You can bring as much stuff as you can <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.insider.com/amtrak-auto-train-worth-the-price-pros-tips-2023-9">squeeze into your vehicle</a>.The Insider Today team: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/dan-defrancesco">Dan DeFrancesco</a>, senior editor and anchor, in New York City. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/diamond-naga-siu">Diamond Naga Siu</a>, senior reporter, in San Diego. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/hallam-bullock">Hallam Bullock</a>, editor, in London. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/lisa-ryan">Lisa Ryan</a>, executive editor, in New York.

Insider Today: Big Tech goes on trial

<keyword id="42747" type="DOMAIN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tata-Motors">Tata Motors</keyword> on Thursday said it has commenced production of its upcoming flagship SUV Safari. The auto major on Thursday rolled out the first Safari unit from its Pune-based manufacturing facility, Tata Motors said in a statement. "The Safari is our flagship offering to connect the aspirations of the discerning and evolved Indian customer," Tata Motors CEO and MD Guenter Butschek said. The company had introduced <keyword id="3658" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="India">India</keyword> to the <keyword id="10594908" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="suv-lifestyle">SUV lifestyle</keyword> with the Safari and in its new avatar, will carry forward this rich idea to build further its legacy, he added. "The new <keyword id="595044" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="tata-safari">Tata Safari</keyword> is ideal for families and groups with a multifaceted lifestyle, who prefer to drive together for work or leisure, as it offers an unmatchable combo of an exceptionally strong lineage, robust build quality, premium finishes and the 4Ps of power, performance, presence and prestige," Butschek said. The company is yet to open bookings for the model. MSS SEE ALSO:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/the-indian-government-may-call-whatsapp-to-explain-why-its-new-data-sharing-terms-apply-in-india-but-not-in-europe/articleshow/80262586.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink"> The Indian government may call WhatsApp to explain why its new data privacy policy applies in India but not in Europe</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/trump-becomes-first-president-to-be-impeached-twice-as-house-charges-him-with-inciting-an-insurrection/articleshow/80260200.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Trump becomes first president to be impeached twice as House charges him with inciting an insurrection</a>

Tata Motors rolls out first 2021 Safari SUV as production begins at Pune plant

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Anna Codrea-Rado intensely schedules her working week as a freelance <keyword id="11907131" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="writer" source="Orion">writer</keyword>.</li><li>She experimented by ditching every <keyword id="11894133" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="productivity" source="Orion">productivity</keyword> hack she typically used to see what would happen.</li></ul>Some people do things for the 'gram. I do things for the to-do list.I'll add something I've already done just so that I can immediately tick it off. I used to think this was a harmless quirk, but lately, it's raised an uncomfortable question. Are my <keyword id="12282368" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="productivity-hacks" source="Orion">productivity hacks</keyword> helping or harming my work?I started this year with a resolution to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/am-i-a-workaholic-wellbeing-productivity-problems-2022-1?r=US&amp;IR=T">change my unhealthy relationship with work as</a> a freelance writer. I vowed to try a "do-less year," a commitment to decreasing my work in the hopes of resetting my relationship with productivity. Before, my typical week involved a morning routine, a lot of calendar blocking, time batching, and Pomodoro Techniques. In the spirit of drastic action, I went cold turkey on all of that. Here's what happened. <h2>Monday</h2>Monday started with a headfirst dive into the deep end of anti-productivity. I didn't follow the usual routine of spending the first half of the day planning my week with a detailed to-do list and slotting each of those items into my calendar.I'd then usually plan the week's meals and get the shopping done. But I figured that a deoptimized week would also apply to the stuff I do outside of work, so I ditched the plan, and I just randomly bought stuff. One point already for this experiment: My grocery bill was lower than usual. I ended my day checking my emails in bed. I try to keep my phone in another room at night to avoid the temptation to do exactly what I ended up doing here: going back and forth at 10:30 p.m. about booking a call for Friday.<h2>Tuesday</h2>This was when I really leaned into the chaos. I turned off my permanent email auto-responder, which I'd started using after reading about <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/09/6-ways-to-set-boundaries-around-email">email boundaries</a>. I also kept both my inbox and WhatsApp open in browser tabs while working. I inevitably spent all day texting the group chat about the "<a href="https://www.thecut.com/2022/02/a-vibe-shift-is-coming.html">vibe shift" article</a> and had to work into the evening to catch up. The open inbox, while super distracting, did lead to my seeing an email come in from an old colleague with an interesting work lead. I'd usually organize that for a future date, but I took it there and then. Not only did I end up with a good gig, but I also reconnected with an old friend. <h2>Wednesday</h2>I woke up at 7:30 a.m. and didn't know what to do with myself. I'm usually trying to optimize my time so I can make the best use of the first hours of the day. But without a schedule, I was rudderless. So I painted my nails — something I'd never normally do first thing in the morning. It made me realize how little time I make for myself. By 11 a.m., I still hadn't really started my day, and I felt anxious it was slipping away from me. Wednesdays are my "creative days," when I don't schedule client work. The thought of losing that time was stressful.I didn't want to hash out a detailed schedule, but I did scribble a skeleton of a plan onto a bit of paper.It was loose enough to give me a vague sense of direction, and I ended up making good headway with a project I'd been stuck on.I think this was because I gave myself enough focus by writing down what I wanted to achieve, but I didn't stifle my creativity by being too prescriptive about how to do it.I went to bed feeling pleased.<h2>Thursday</h2>I woke up super early. I got through a load of client work, so I decided at the last minute to go to a 9 a.m. yoga class I'd been meaning to try and then work from the library next door.I almost exclusively work from home, but I thought I should mix that up this week. While I was in the library, I found a copy of <a href="https://www.annacodrearado.com/book">my book on the shelf</a>. It was a thrill to see the fruits of my daily grind out in the real world. I had a late lunch back at home. My partner saw me eating in front of my computer while I was working — multitasking to maximize my efficiency — and asked why, when productivity wasn't my focus for the week.It was a good reminder of how personal working habits can be – what I find natural, someone else finds to be a lot of effort to go to in the name of efficiency.<h2>Friday</h2>My decision to not batch-cook my meals for the week on Monday came back around to bite me. By Friday I just couldn't be bothered to take the extra time to make healthy meal choices — the whole reason I plan them out — so I ate a snack bar for breakfast and microwave waffles for dinner.Past inefficient Anna did something else that came back to haunt me. After that email back-and-forth on Monday night, I didn't confirm in my usual way by sending a calendar invite and managed to mess up the timings. So I had to start my weekend with a long call at 7 p.m. on a Friday. <h2>I was surprised that, on the whole, my week did work</h2>Despite the calendar flubs, on the whole, I got a lot of stuff done and, more importantly, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-be-less-down-about-my-productivity-recognize-success-2021-10?r=US&amp;IR=T">felt positive about my accomplishments</a>. Like any self-respecting productivity nerd, I have data. I track my time so I was able to see that I had clocked more hours than usual. Not only that but, according to my rough calculations, I did 50% less admin and 10% more deep work. I deoptimized my week and ended up spending more time on the important work and less time on the boring stuff.To state the obvious, this data is unreliable. For one thing, I was consciously making an effort to clock my hours. And the fact that I was going to write about it was a permission slip not to feel guilty about what I wasn't doing. That doesn't diminish the most important revelation: that I'd trapped myself in a paradox of efficiency. In trying to plan my days to maximize efficiency, I was hamstrung by my own routine. My to-do list was a stick to beat myself with, and planning became exactly the sort of procrastination it was meant to overcome. That's not to mention that confronting the lengths I usually go to in the name of efficiency was, frankly, embarrassing.<h2>I won't keep working in this way though</h2>It didn't feel sustainable, and it showed me that some of my old habits really do work for me. For instance, anything that involves making decisions in one go (like meal planning) is how I'm able to stick to healthier habits.Similarly, keeping my calendar up-to-date is my air-traffic-control unit, and without it, things slip through the net and I feel on edge. But I do want to honor my biggest takeaway: that a truly optimized schedule needs to have enough breathing room for spontaneity, an inherently inefficient but necessary part of meaningful work.

I ditched productivity hacks and it worked, but I'm still going back. Here's what it taught me about organizing my workweek.

<ul><li>Online retail is set to become the third-largest online retail market by scale by CY30 with an annual gross merchandise value (GMV) of $55 billion in CY21 and $350 billion in CY30, said <keyword id="3359665" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="RedSeer">RedSeer</keyword> at its flagship event Ground Zero 5.0.</li><li>As per the report, shared mobility saw a sharp decline due to the 2nd wave led lockdowns in the last two months.</li></ul>India’s consumer <keyword id="6354648" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-economy">digital economy</keyword> which was pegged at USD $85-90 billion in CY 20, is expected to become a USD $800 billion market by 2030, according to reports released by homegrown consulting firm RedSeer at their flagship event Ground Zero 5.0. The digital economy includes 60% of travel, 40% of non grocery retail, 30% of education, 25% of food and beverages services and 6% of Pharma/Grocery going through digital channels by CY30. The Ground Zero 5.0 event was attended by Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Ayog along with T.V Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services and Sanjeev Bikhchandani, co-founder, Info Edge along with other stalwarts of the Startup Industry who participated in the day-long panel discussions on retail, mobility, logistics, digital ads, fintech and IPOs. Commenting on the overall digital ecosystem, <keyword id="80658" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anil-Kumar">Anil Kumar</keyword>, founder and CEO of RedSeer, said, “Over the last one decade, entrepreneurs have dedicated themselves to solve for the specific needs and pain areas of Indian consumers. Today, 50% + customers say they use online services because of convenience. Few years back almost 70% + used to say the key reason is discounting but with the hit of Covid, digital services have undoubtedly served the customers very well, which is evident in high customer satisfaction and customers willingness to keep using the digital as a key channel to fulfill their needs. The next wave of entrepreneurs will create innovations which will make the Indian model successful globally.” India to become 3rd largest online retail market by CY30 Online retail is set to become the third-largest online retail market by scale by CY30 with an annual gross merchandise value (GMV) of $55 billion in CY21 and $350 billion in CY30, said RedSeer at its flagship event Ground Zero 5.0, according to reports released by homegrown consulting firm RedSeer at their flagship event Ground Zero 5.0. According to the data released by RedSeer Consulting, 88% of the online shoppers that will be added between 2020-2030 will be from Tier 2+ cities. Further, $&gt;7 billion cumulative incremental online retail transactions to be added from Tier 2+ city customers over CY 20-30 while easily more than $~150 billion cumulative incremental online retail GMV to be added from Tier 2+ city customers over CY 20-30. The adoption factors that will drive the growth for the next few years are: <ul><li>Companies have started to focus on tier 2 cities</li><li>Growing online spends by 'Digital Natives' and supply-side innovations</li><li>COVID-19 has caused an inflection in e-commerce penetration across city tiers</li><li>Lowering costs of servicing tier-II and other smaller cities </li></ul>Additionally, kiranas are expected to achieve approximately achieve a $1.5 trillion sales by CY30. The growth will be driven by: <ul><li>Platforms that are enabling these kiranas technologically and digitally</li><li>Cashless payments</li><li>Book Keeping and EB2B offerings</li></ul>New-Age Logistics players created an opportunity of 500,000 employment for gig workers in 2020 E-Logistics in India has become the fastest growing market globally with over 3 billion shipments in 2020. India traditionally had an inefficient supply chain with a slow and undemocratic access. Today ~ 90%+ of the orders fulfilled by the online commerce get done by the <keyword id="11547673" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="new-age-logistics">new age logistics</keyword>, an industry which has come up only in the last one decade and has solved for the above challenges through technology and customer centric mindset. Further, three out of the top 10 logistics players in India are today the new age (e- logistics) players. The new age logistics players are expected to deliver 2.5 billion D2C shipments by 2030. With the rise of <keyword id="436047" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ecommerce">eCommerce</keyword>, the need for specialized delivery service emerged, which led to the overall growth of the logistics segment. Emergence of this sector created 500,000 employment for gig workers in 2021 across captive and 3PL. The new-age 3PL logistics players have delivered 850 million shipments in 2020. New age logistics players have reduced the average time of delivery by 2/3rd in last 7 years, have covered nearly all the pincodes across India through enabled deep tech solutions to serve the different type of customer needs and requirements like same day delivery, hyperlocal, service enabled etc. E-logistics has been fulfilling the needs of the small city customers. Increasing coverage across India and faster delivery, enabled Tier-2+ cities to account for 50%+ shoppers to Indian eCommerce by the end of 2020. Other emerging trends Other sectors in the new-age economy have also been strongly impacted by the pandemic. A number of new trends are emerging in these various sectors which will shape the ecosystem going forward. Shared mobility dips but personal mobility soars in demand According to RedSeer research, shared mobility saw a sharp decline due to the 2nd wave led lockdowns in the last two months. Although the autos segment recovered the fastest, the overall sector merely clocked 18 million rides, a drop from 113 million rides in January last year. However, while the shared mobility is dipping, personal mobility space is riding on a wave of strong traction seen since last year. While auto OEMs have responded with relevant offerings to democratize access to cars, tech platforms are also accelerating focus on digitizing the car ownership journey. Online used car transaction penetration to grow ~9x in the next ~10 years. Another category that is ripe for digital disruption is the car service &amp; repairs market which is still a highly fragmented market which faces challenges like inefficiencies, bloated pricing and poor experience for both consumers and service workshops. This segment is expected to penetrate ~15% of this highly fragmented market by CY30. With rise in digital content, advertisements see higher demand On the other hand, online content is seeing phenomenal growth leading to the overall growth of the digital ad industry as well. Digital content is emerging as the bellwether of demand creation for time spent. India, one of the largest economies, is surging ahead on content and smartphone usage. Monthly active users (MAU) have become democratised with increasing adoption of varied digital services and platforms. Further, another example of democratization is seen in an increasingly largely base of active digital content users now coming from Tier 2+ cities with the top two categories being Facebook-owned WhatsApp followed by news aggregators.

India’s Digital Economy to touch $800 billion by 2030: RedSeer

<a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Peru-Virus-Outbreak/d005dfe383444e2f83d4d4e7c015770e/7/0">Rodrigo Abd/AP</a>People wearing masks walk through the Lima, Peru airport on Friday. On Sunday, the country closed its borders for 15 days.<ul class="summary-list"><li>The coronavirus outbreak has caused some countries to completely close their borders, trapping American tourists abroad in places like Honduras, Peru, and Morocco.</li><li>These trapped Americans have been speaking to news outlets, saying the US government has done little to help them get home.</li><li>An anonymous State Department official told Bloomberg on Tuesday that US citizens should not expect help getting them home, like the help given earlier to Americans in Wuhan.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>Possibly thousands of American tourists have been stranded abroad thanks to coronavirus travel restrictions, and an anonymous State Department official says they shouldn't expect the US government's help getting them home.As the world tries to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, a few countries have closed their borders entirely.That has left "perhaps thousands" of Americans, according to NBC News estimates, trapped abroad in locked-down countries, which include Honduras, Peru, and Morocco.US citizens trapped in these countries spoke to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/coronavirus-americans-abroad-scramble-get-home-n1161576">NBC News</a> and <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/17/politics/americans-stranded-in-peru/index.html">CNN</a>, pointing out that the US government has done little to help them.On Tuesday, a State Department official, speaking anonymously, told <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-17/americans-stuck-abroad-told-not-to-wait-for-u-s-assistance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg</a> that these citizens shouldn't expect the government's help getting them home. This appears to be a reversal from the aid the department offered Americans abroad early in the outbreak, when the government chartered flights out of Wuhan, China.CNN spoke to several Americans trapped in Peru, where the president instituted a 15-day border closure on Sunday. All said they had reached out to the State Department, but received "minimal to no response."Jesse Curry, who is staying with family in Peru, said he tried and failed to book a flight as soon as he heard the news Monday morning. Since then, he's had a tough time getting in contact with the State Department."I received one response to a tweet; otherwise it's been email auto replies and forever-ringing phones," he said. "Even the emergency number just rang and rang."On Monday, the US Embassy in Peru said that "American citizens who have not been able to reschedule their flights out of Peru should arrange lodging for the duration of the quarantine period."Some of the trapped Americans in Peru have joined a WhatsApp group where they are keeping each other updated.<a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/China-Outbreak-US-Evacuees/b95cf83bf11244f49635e7378d6330ba/3/0">Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP</a>An airplane that was used to evacuated Americans out of China is seen on January 29, 2020, at an air base in Riverside, California."Currently, we are emailing and calling our states' politicians, and spreading the word through social media in hopes of gathering attention," Daniel Voznyarskiy, a Washington resident stuck in Peru, told CNN."Our biggest worry is that these next 15 days won't end there, and that there may be an extension, noting the country's inability to handle such cases," Voznyarskiy added.NBC News spoke to Americans experiencing a similar situation in Morocco.Phil and Jerri McMannis from Boston, Massachusetts, told NBC News they have been trying to get home from Morocco since Friday, when an impending border closure was announced. Though the border closure did not go in to effect until Sunday, the couple struggled to get a flight."The local people are offering to help and are talking to us, but our own government has said nothing," McMannis told NBC News, adding that he had reached out to the US Embassy and his senators.Mary Marland of Colorado flew to Morocco on Friday for a wedding as the announcement was being made. She and her family tried to rebook to leave Sunday, but ran into the same problems as the McMannises."Information is unreliable. Every cancellation happened without a rebooking option, and I've spent hours on the phone will the airlines," Marland said.Now she's worried about begin stuck at their Tangiers hotel longterm, where breakfast for the family costs $90."I am terrified of the idea that this is going to go on beyond this week," she said.When NBC News reached out to the State Department for comment on these cases on Tuesday, a spokesperson said that while the US government had evacuated hundreds of citizens in the last few weeks, "such flights do not reflect our standard practice and should not be relied upon as an option for US citizens abroad who may be impacted by the ongoing spread of COVID-19."However, after making that statement the US Embassy in Morocco confirmed that they were arranging 300 flights out of Agadir and Marrakesh to London in the following days.When reached for comment on Wednesday, a State Department spokesperson said that they had "no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas.""We are aware the governments of several countries have announced suspension of air travel. We are considering all options to assist U.S. citizens in these countries," the spokesperson wrote."We are continuously assessing travel conditions in all areas affected by COVID-19, and will continue to update our travel advisories and safety information for U.S. travelers as situations evolve."They offered the following advice to the American citizens in the impacted countries:<ul><li>Monitor the relevant embassy website for information</li><li>Enroll at <a href="https://step.state.gov/">STEP.state.gov</a> to receive updates</li><li>Follow the advice of the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html">CDC</a> and local health authorities</li><li>Check with your airlines for updates</li><li>Monitor the State Department COVID-19 <a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/ea/covid-19-information.html">website</a></li></ul><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pandemics-that-changed-the-course-of-human-history-coronavirus-flu-aids-plague?r=US&amp;IR=T">11 pandemics that changed the course of human history, from the Black Death to HIV/AIDS - to coronavirus</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tourism-industry-asking-150-billion-aid-coronavirus-jobs-2020-3?r=US&amp;IR=T">Tourism execs are asking for a $150 billion bailout, saying the economic impact to the travel industry will be worse than the 9/11 attacks and the 2008 recession combined</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-talk-to-older-family-members-about-the-coronavirus-2020-3?r=US&amp;IR=T">Here's the conversation I had to get through to my older family members about coronavirus - and why it's important to redefine 'acts of love' during a pandemic</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-anxiety-therapy-advice-self-care-2020-3?r=US&amp;IR=T">Why you shouldn't judge yourself for having coronavirus anxiety, according to a therapist</a></li></ul> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/economist-weighted-voting-could-help-save-us-democracy-2018-5">A top economist has a radical plan to change the way Americans vote: weighted voting</a></h3>

Americans trapped abroad by coronavirus travel bans say the government isn't doing enough to get them home

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Justin Sullivan</div></div></div>Google revealed <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-google-announced-at-io-keynote">a handful of slick new products this week</a> that showed off its impressive artificial intelligence and machine learning tech chops. Its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-assistant-2016-5">new conversational assistant</a>, for example, will take its traditional search product to the next level, letting users ask it questions, find suggestions, or book services through text chat in its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-launches-allo-2016-5">new messaging app Allo</a> or voice, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-home-voice-assistant-2016-5">in its new smart speaker, Home. </a>Google's building on many years of research, development, and data collecting here and it shows. Although Home is essentially a follow-up to Amazon's Echo speaker, Google has much more experience with voice search and natural language processing. Ask Home a question, like "How tall is Steph Curry?" and you can follow-up with "What's his jersey number?" and Home will know who you're still talking about, where Alexa can only handle single queries. "Our ability to do conversational understanding is far ahead of what other assistants can do," Google CEO Sundar Pichai boasted of Google's technology. "We're an order of magnitude ahead of everyone else."But despite Google's behind-the-scenes smarts, the company will have some serious challenges ahead to get people actually using its new products. <h2>Playing catch up </h2>For one, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-io-announcements-didnt-break-new-ground-2016-5">they're already late to the game</a> and not actually available yet.Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research, sums it up <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/googles-new-products-reflect-push-into-machine-learning-1463598395?mod=e2twd">for The Wall Street Journal:</a>"The technology looks good in principle, but there's a significant risk that Google is coming into some of these markets too late to make a difference."Assistant, Home, and Allo all nebulously launch "later this year." When they do finally hit the real world, Allo in particular will have to stand out in an already very crowded messaging space. One developer I talked to at IO highlighted the challenge perfectly when he sheepishly told me how he'd been peer-pressured into buying an iPhone because his loved ones used iMessage. It was easier for him to switch phones than to convert them to an operating system-agnostic chat app like WhatsApp.That's an extreme example but the point stands: messaging apps aren't useful if your friends haven't downloaded them. <h2>Making the benefits worth the creep factor</h2>To overcome that hurdle and convince people to convert from Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-wont-kill-hangouts-app-2016-5">Hangouts</a>, or whatever else, as their main means of messaging, Google will need to convince people that having AI manage your life is <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&amp;vertical=default&amp;q=allo%20creepy&amp;src=typd">more convenient than it is creepy. </a>At the ire of some privacy advocates, you'll have to <a href="http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/05/incensing-critics-google-engineer-ends-push-for-crypto-only-setting-in-allo/">sacrifice the end-to-end encryption</a> that's a staple in iMessage or WhatsApp to get the full benefits of Assistant (though Allo does have a fully encrypted incognito mode). The allure of Assistant is that it can make <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-launches-allo-2016-5">messaging more productive</a> by auto-suggesting replies based on your speech patterns and through image recognition and "remembering" things about you to tailor recommendations (for example, it could know you're vegan and suggest restaurants accordingly).But do you want Google <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/19/11713786/google-allo-every-keystroke-a-google-search">becoming your voice</a>? What's the <a href="http://time.com/4341201/google-io-home-allo/">cost of convenience</a>?As <a href="http://archive.is/H8LpW#selection-197.0-197.288">Apple blogger Marco Arment points out</a>, Google's vision of the future has missed the mark before:As we hurtle towards a future potentially powered by artificial-intelligence and we grapple with what that means for our daily interactions, Google needs to prove that the benefits it can bring us from dancing so close to <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/how-google-leapfrogged-the-creepy-line?utm_term=.qdW0AEBx8a#.jizJO7roLy">that "creepy line"</a> are worth it. That's the only way it can make up ground after launching too late. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-falcon-9-rocket-cargo-launch-landing-video-2016-5">SpaceX made history again - watch its rocket deploy a satellite and land safely back on Earth</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="RvZzFjMzE6mlSBqKY6CFLTt-oCLoE8Fo" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Google's new products prove it has still the best tech chops - but it might not matter

<ul class="summary-list"><li>More than 13,000 Americans have been stranded abroad as countries close their borders and restrict travel to try to quell the coronavirus pandemic.</li><li>Americans stranded in Peru and India told Business Insider that the US embassies there have failed to adequately communicate with citizens, often giving outdated or even incorrect information.</li><li>The State Department told Business Insider it "has continued vigorously to prosecute its historic mission to bring Americans home from hard-to-reach areas and cities hardest-hit by the virus."</li><li>Left to their own devices, citizens have begun organizing online independently of the US government to try and get home.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>When Jesse Curry and his family arrived in Lima, Peru, on March 13, the Florida native said life in the South American city seemed impervious to the novel coronavirus without a mask in sight. When they woke up on March 15, that all changed.That Sunday, Peru's president, Martin Vizcarra, issued a 15-day nationwide state of emergency and abruptly closed the borders to halt the spread of the novel virus, leaving thousands of foreign tourists stranded in the country.International border closures and travel restrictions have left more than 13,000 Americans stranded in foreign countries across the world, the <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/489143-state-department-under-fire-as-americans-remain-stranded-abroad?fbclid=IwAR0Hj4YhK-C65kd5zGcVy32WwRbVytcTyM6pTUHsFMEL5VdVz3FISuyvRzw">Hill reported</a>. Since the early days of the outbreak, the State Department has repatriated more than 5,000 US citizens from 17 countries.US travelers stuck in Peru and India told Business Insider the US embassies have not been forthcoming, and the little information they have received is vague, outdated, or even wrong.But some US embassy employees have pointed the finger at the State Department. One foreign service officer told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/20/politics/state-department-coronavirus-confusion/index.html">CNN</a> that "every embassy is just making it up as we go along" because the agency hasn't given them better guidance."The State Department is rising to meet the historic challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, every day, all over the world," a spokesperson for the State Department told Business Insider. "The State has never before undertaken an evacuation effort of such geographic breadth, scale, and complexity in its more than 230-year history."Left to their own devices, Curry and about 2,500 other Americans citizens stranded in Peru have resorted to organizing and creating their own information networks online."Without any information to make decisions, people don't know if they're going to be here a week, two weeks, a month, two months, three months - and it's really unnerving," Curry told Business Insider.<h2>Americans stuck abroad say the US embassies have been no help</h2>Curry, who works as a software developer, told Business Insider that he first discovered that foreign tourists were rushing to fly home before the borders shut on March 16. He immediately reached out to the US Embassy in Lima to see how his family, including his mother, wife, and two children, could get home to Tampa, Florida. With only a vague auto-reply message, he called its emergency line to no avail."Since then, the communication from them has been extremely limited and the information is often outdated if not just completely wrong," Curry said. "Right now the US embassy is closed as far as I can tell. Nobody's really answering at all."New Yorker Eliana Ojeda and her four-year-old son came to visit family in Peru and are now stuck at her aunt's house."I only speak for myself, but the USA embassy in Lima sucks. You can't do anything through the phone, only by email, and it took days for a response," Ojeda told Business Insider.An American living at the center of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, expressed nearly identical frustrations with the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-center-wuhan-coronavirus-outbreak-are-outraged-with-the-us-2020-1">US embassy's lack of communication in the early days of the outbreak</a>.In the absence of the US embassy, Americans citizens stranded in the country began organizing on WhatsApp and in a Facebook group called "<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/195698985200275/">Americans Stuck in Peru</a>" to take stock of how many were stuck in the country and share updates. Americans have also created Facebook groups in other countries, including <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/3074503132580088/about/">Ecuador</a> and India.Peter Barbot, a 29-year-old scuba diving instructor stranded in New Delhi, India, said he contacted the US embassy about India's ban on all international flights to the country, but also received little information and vague, uninformative messages. So he also started an "Americans Stuck in India" Facebook group.Curry said he's helped other Americans in Peru find pharmacies to fill prescriptions, sign up for the STEP service online, and register for the US-organized flight when the site kept crashing on mobile devices. <a href="https://step.state.gov/">STEP</a> is a service the State Department offers to keep Americans informed of travel advisories when they're in other countries.Although the embassy now sends daily updates to those enrolled in the STEP program, Curry and others say there is still no clear answer on when they will be able to return home."If you look at the flights that people have been able to book that have later been canceled, it really paints a picture that we could be here indefinitely," Curry said. "The communication from the State Department is not helping that at all."<h2>One American said the State Department is doing what it can and the real problem is 'pushy Americans'</h2>Michael and Anne Goins were ready to board a bus tour of Machu Picchu the day the country's borders closed.Instead of exploring the Incan ruins, the husband and wife from North Carolina headed straight to Cusco, Peru, to try to catch a plane back to the United States - and after 2.5 hours of waiting, they were 20 people away from getting on the last plane out.The 65-year-old optometrist said he's also had difficulty getting in touch with the staff at the American embassy. But Goins came to the State Department's defense, suggesting the real problem was "pushy" Americans."We've all tried to reach out to them - they're short-staffed because they've evacuated [essential employees]" Michael told Business Insider. "I'm a little frustrated with the people that piss and moan. We live in an instantaneous society and everyone wants this stuff done yesterday. This isn't how it works. Everything takes time."Although Goins had faith that the federal government would find a way to repatriate its citizens, he expressed anxiety about Anne running out of her medication, which is unavailable in the country. His private practice and his employees in Wilmington, North Carolina, also hang in the balance with Michael well-past his allotted vacation time."This was a dream trip for us," Michael said. "But we'd like to get home now."The first US evacuation flights out of Peru left the country nearly a week after the country abruptly closed its borders, including medically vulnerable citizens and Peace Corps members.President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and State Department officials made conflicting statements about organizing military transport to evacuate citizens in Peru, but the US ultimately decided not to send military aircraft on Saturday, the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans-stranded-after-peru-closes-borders-over-coronavirus-11584827948">Wall Street Journal</a> reported.On March 24, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida announced that a "competent official" was being sent to Peru to take over evacuation operations after he complained to the federal agency that "the Ambassador essentially abandoned the post to return to Washington," the <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/489256-senior-state-department-official-headed-to-peru-to-bring-home-stranded">Hill</a> reported.<h2>Flight cancellations and border closures complicate Americans' ability to get home</h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-airlines-flight-shutdown-us-covid19-2020-3">Airlines have canceled thousands of flights</a> as the coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the travel industry. At least <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-global-airlines-stopping-flights-suspending-operations-2020-3">55 global airlines</a> have completely stopped flying scheduled flights due to travel bans, airspace closures, and low demand for travel.That means, in many cases, the US government evacuating its citizens could be some people's best hope right now.Curry and other Americans received an email that the US was working on getting flights for citizens if they register for them. Despite registering his family almost immediately, Curry said he has yet to receive any confirmation or when his family could get a flight back home.While he and his family remain fairly comfortable, another citizen from Missouri, Zoe Parham, told Business Insider she and a friend hitched rides and rode buses from a small rural town to get back to Cusco or Lima so they could try and make a flight home. But her flight and many others were canceled without notice after Peru tightened travel restrictions.Ojeda said she was told Americans had to sign a waiver agreeing to pay the US back for their evacuation flights home. Meanwhile, scammers have preyed on the desperation to leave the country offering fake private charter flights out of Peru that often don't exist."We ask [the US] for help, but they charge us for the flight for more then $800 per person," Ojeda said. "We are trying to survive in a country that is not even ours, but then we need to pay the US to take us back home."The State Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on charging citizens for flights home.The agency was able to bring home more than 1,000 Americans in Morocco five days after the country also abruptly closed its border on March 15, The Hill reported. A military charter evacuated the US women's football team in Honduras, but hundreds of Americans are still in the country."The State Department has continued vigorously to prosecute its historic mission to bring Americans home from hard-to-reach areas and cities hardest-hit by the virus," a spokesperson for the State Department told Business Insider.The agency said it's done what it can in the mass hysteria prompted by the novel virus, but that wasn't comforting to Curry, whose family is still stuck in Peru."I think that the State Department's response thus far I would categorize as criminally incompetent," he said. "I don't think that I could see any way to handle a situation like this any worse."Get the latest <a href="/coronavirus-covid19">coronavirus analysis and research</a> from Business Insider Intelligence on how COVID-19 is impacting businesses.

Americans stranded in foreign countries say they're stuck in limbo with little guidance from the US

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>The smartphone is ubiquitous, addictive and transformativeTHE dawn of the planet of the smartphones came in January 2007, when Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, in front of a rapt audience of Apple acolytes, brandished a slab of plastic, metal and silicon not much bigger than a Kit Kat. "This will change everything," he promised. For once there was no hyperbole. Just eight years later Apple's iPhone exemplifies the early 21st century's defining technology.Smartphones matter partly because of their ubiquity. They have become the fastest-selling gadgets in history, outstripping the growth of the simple mobile phones that preceded them. They outsell personal computers four to one. Today about half the adult population owns a smartphone; by 2020, 80% will. Smartphones have also penetrated every aspect of daily life. The average American is buried in one for over two hours every day. Asked which media they would miss most, British teenagers pick mobile devices over TV sets, PCs and games consoles. Nearly 80% of smartphone-owners check messages, news or other services within 15 minutes of getting up. About 10% admit to having used the gadget during sex.The bedroom is just the beginning. Smartphones are more than a convenient route online, rather as cars are more than engines on wheels and clocks are not merely a means to count the hours. Much as the car and the clock did in their time, so today the smartphone is poised to enrich lives, reshape entire industries and transform societies--and in ways that Snapchatting teenagers cannot begin to imagine.<h3>Phono sapiens</h3>The transformative power of smartphones comes from their size and connectivity. Size makes them the first truly personal computers. The phone takes the processing power of yesterday's supercomputers--even the most basic model has access to more number-crunching capacity than NASA had when it put men on the Moon in 1969--and applies it to ordinary human interactions (see pages 21-24). Because transmitting data is cheap this power is available on the move. Since 2005 the cost of delivering one megabyte wirelessly has dropped from $8 to a few cents. It is still falling. The boring old PC sitting on your desk does not know much about you. But phones travel around with you--they know where you are, what websites you visit, whom you talk to, even how healthy you are.The combination of size and connectivity means that this knowledge can be shared and aggregated, bridging the realms of bits and atoms in ways that are both professional and personal. Uber connects available drivers to nearby fares at cheaper prices; Tinder puts people in touch with potential dates. In future, your phone might recommend a career change or book a doctor's appointment to treat your heart murmur before you know anything is amiss.As with all technologies, this future conjures up a host of worries. Some, such as "text neck" (hunching over a smartphone stresses the spine) are surely transient. Others, such as dependency--smartphone users exhibit "nomophobia" when they happen to find themselves empty-handed--are a measure of utility as much as addiction. After all, people also hate to be without their wheels or their watch.The greater fear is over privacy. The smartphone turns the person next to you into a potential publisher of your most private or embarrassing moments. Many app vendors, who know a great deal about you, sell data without proper disclosure; mobile-privacy policies routinely rival "Hamlet" for length. And if leaked documents are correct, GCHQ, Britain's signals-intelligence agency, has managed to hack a big vendor of SIM cards in order to be able to listen in to people's calls (see page 23). If spooks in democracies are doing this sort of thing, you can be sure that those in authoritarian regimes will, too. Smartphones will give dictators unprecedented scope to spy on and corral their unwilling subjects.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div><h3>The naked app</h3>Yet three benefits weigh against these threats to privacy. For a start, the autocrats will not have it all their own way. Smartphones are the vehicle for bringing billions more people online. The cheapest of them now sell for less than $40, and prices are likely to fall even further. The same phones that allow governments to spy on their citizens also record the brutality of officials and spread information and dissenting opinions. They feed the demand for autonomy and help protest movements to coalesce. A device that hands so much power to the individual has the potential to challenge authoritarianism.The second benefit is all those personal data which companies are so keen on. Conventional social sciences have been hampered by the limited data sets they could collect. Smartphones are digital census-takers, creating a more detailed view of society than has ever existed before and doing so in real time. Governed by suitable regulations, anonymised personal data can be used, among many other things, to optimise traffic flows, prevent crime and fight epidemics.The third windfall is economic. Some studies find that in developing countries every ten extra mobile phones per 100 people increase the rate of growth of GDP-per-person by more than one percentage point--by, say, drawing people into the banking system. Smartphones will remake entire industries, at unheard-of speed. Uber is a household name, operating in 55 countries, but has yet to celebrate its fifth birthday. WhatsApp was founded in 2009, and already handles 10 billion more messages a day than the SMS global text-messaging system. The phone is a platform, so startups can cheaply create an app to test an idea--and then rapidly go global if people like it. That is why it will unleash creativity on a planetary scale.By their nature, seminal technologies ask hard questions of society, especially as people adapt to them. Smartphones are no different. If citizens aren't protected from prying eyes, some will suffer and others turn their backs. Societies will have to develop new norms and companies learn how to balance privacy and profit. Governments will have to define what is acceptable. But in eight short years smartphones have changed the world--and they have hardly begun.Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist This article was from The Economist and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.<div class="KonaFilter image-container nc_pixel"><div class="image"></div></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inventor-auto-tune-music-kanye-west-t-pain-andy-hildebrand-2015-2">Here's the unlikely story of how auto-tune was created</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="hvOGE1czq9Y2lLOX0M4NZLaRu-dBP8ZI" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Why smartphones are the best-selling gadgets in history

<ul><li>Chaaya Baradhwaaj, Founder, <keyword id="3127333" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="BC-Web-Wise">BC Web Wise</keyword> ponders upon a few important questions that you have been worried about -- ‘if large businesses should communicate or not, can we run a regular communication, etc.’</li><li>She further writes about a few ways in which you can produce such messaging in the fairly challenging scenario where you cannot be out there doing shoots, or your product is not available easily online or offline.</li></ul>With uncertainty that looms large across businesses to communicate or not is the big question. The bigger question, what do you communicate? Can we run our regular communication? It may run the risk of demonstrating apathy, and /or be received with apathy by the audience. In the forced social isolation scenario, consumers are more likely to be receptive to a certain kind of messaging, and crafting this well can pay off doing good for the brand and the audience, provided it resonates with the consumer sentiments. This may help to not just reinforce trust in the brand, but also play a part in doing good for our audience by touching upon issues they are currently grappling with . What is probably most critical is authenticity of the message . The third big question, how do you produce such messaging in the fairly challenging scenario where you cannot be out there doing shoots, or your product is not available easily online or offline. 1. Smart Social ContentThe right social post can go viral. If liked can be shared and reshared not only on the social platforms but also on personal messenger groups like Whatsapp. De-Selling Your Brand’s Core Selling Proposition It may just appear so out of a brand’s comfort zone, but makes a statement about how far you can go in consumer interest. Something that a lot of automobile brands have done, and well. <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div>Jeep’s #StayIndoor Car rental brand Zoomcar’s topical post riding on Netflix’s Heist that is trending in India <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div>Volvo’s very bold statement here, would surely grab attention. <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> Building Positivity With your Brands Core Selling Proposition Joining Arms With The Consumer To Salute Foot Soldiers Another leg, which helps to sincerely celebrate those in the front, and create content that resonates well with the audience, who can then join you in saluting these heroes. Done by Vivo Inda &amp; Mercedes here. <div type="javascript" title="Facebook" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[]]></cdata></div> <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> 2. Becoming An Enabler &amp; Engaging the Audience Make The Most of This Time At home Project 21 by HDFC ERGO: An initiative aimed at positively engaging its community through constructive home activities that will help us all grow both professionally and personally. Project 21 involved social content for 21 days, each highlighting one activity that people could take up each day, for instance. learning a new skill, reading a book, spending time with family, etc. <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> In light of the 21 Day Lockdown, Nutrela asked followers to share a recipe using one of the ingredients from the list everyday in the 21days healthy recipe challenge. To inspire recipes – the brand is also sharing #HealthyRecipesEveryday, where along with the recipe interesting facts about the dish such as when it was invented or where it originated from. <div type="javascript" title="Facebook" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[]]></cdata></div> 3. From Discounts To Going Free The travel industry had to respond with offers and measures to waive of cancellation or re-scheduling charges. Surely, they have gained a certain degree of trust, and respect from the beneficiaries. Brand love can definitely be generated when you are able to offer something absolutely free, or that which translates into tangible benefits. LinkedIn is getting all set to offer 16 of its courses for free. Toyota &amp; Hyundai are offering buyer protection to car buyers who may lose jobs/ cannot pay in the next 6 months. 4. Engaging Influencers While consumers are sensitised to washing hands, they still stock up on loose groceries which may be handled by unclean hands. Madhur Sugar engaged mom influencers to urge consumers to not compromise on quality and stock up on hygienically packed ingredients from trusted brands only. <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> 5. Rehash, Repurpose, Re-invent: Brands have a lot of content in their kitty, and they can be repurposed with relevance. Asian Paints repackaged their old TV commercial from 2007 into a DVC (digital video commercial), only now without the large scale production costs, using real-life footages, shot raw, that resonated with the script. In a week, this ad has 25 million views. Asian Paints has been positioning itself on the tagline `Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai’ which means every home has something to tell . And in 2007 this positioning had a previous version which said `Har Ghar Chup Chap Se Kuch Kehta Hai’ .. every home silently has something to say. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBuI23kojko">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBuI23kojko</a> 6. Brand Logo – Stretch all that much The brand logo defines everything you stand for and if you are able to convey a message by using your logo with a symbolic adaption, it has that much more impact, and it conveys to the audience that this issue is taken that much more seriously by you, and you stand with them at this time. And the bigger the brand, bigger the viral impact too. Coca Cola’s logo with the letters spread apart has probably got more earned media for it globally than what they paid for in the Time’s Square Hoarding, Thanks to COVID-19, social distancing has increased user engagement on social, increased how often the users checked latest news across avenues, and checking in on what’s happening in their social circle. What is critical at this time for sure is to ensure we are keeping our conversation mill runnin with our audience . - By Chaaya Baradhwaaj, Founder, BC Web Wise

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