<ul><li><keyword id="7413620" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="simsim">simsim</keyword> will continue to work independently as a separate entity even after the acquisition.</li><li>It has raised about $15.5 million to date from Accel, Shunwei Capital and Good Capital.</li><li>The Indian social commerce segment is really hot at the moment, with the entry of Tiger Global and SoftBank.</li></ul>US-based search giant Google’s video streaming platform <keyword id="10879" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="YouTube">YouTube</keyword> has announced the acquisition of Indian <keyword id="9674678" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Video-Commerce">video commerce</keyword> platform simsim on Tuesday, July 20. The firms have not disclosed any financial details of the deal. simsim -- founded by Amit Bagaria, Kunal Suri, and Saurabh Vashishtha in June 2019 -- is an e-commerce platform that helps small businesses transaction to the digital economy using videos and content creation. The company connects local businesses, influencers and customers. “We started simsim with the mission of helping users across India shop online with ease, enabled through small sellers and brands showcasing and selling their products using the power of content by trusted influencers. Being a part of the YouTube and Google ecosystem furthers simsim in its mission,” the company’s co-founders said in a joint statement. simsim will continue to work independently as a separate entity even after the acquisition. YouTube, however, is now finding ways to showcase simsim offers to its viewers. “For over 15 years, small businesses have used YouTube to expand their presence online -- and many of them use YouTube to reach customers outside of their local community, from<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/KAMSDESIGNERZONE/about"> Interior</a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/InteriorMaata/about"> Designers</a> to<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PrashantiHQ/featured"> Silk Saree sellers</a>. By bringing simsim and YouTube together, our goal is to help small businesses and retailers in India reach new customers in even more powerful ways,” Gautam Anand, vice president of YouTube Asia Pacific, said in a <a href="https://india.googleblog.com/2021/07/helping-viewers-discover-and-buy.html">blog post</a>. simsim has raised about $15.5 million to date from marquee investors like Accel, Xiaomi’s Shunwei Capital and Good Capital. The India social commerce segment is really hot at the moment, especially after the entry of Meesho in the unicorn club in April 2021. A unicorn, in startup parlance, is a private firm valued at or more than $1 billion. Earlier this month, DealShare announced a $144<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/social-commerce-startup-dealshare-raises-144-million-from-tiger-global/articleshow/84227890.cms"> million </a>funding round led by Tiger Global and co-led by WestBridge Capital, Alpha Wave Incubation and Z3Partners. In June, CityMall raised a $22<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/citymall-a-startup-that-helps-budding-entrepreneurs-start-their-ventures-on-whatsapp-has-raised-over-22-million/articleshow/83741383.cms"> million</a> funding round led by General Catalyst and Jungle Ventures, with participation from existing investors Accel, Elevation Capital (formerly known as SAIF Partners) and WaterBridge Ventures. Meesho, on the other hand, has raised $515 million to date from SoftBank, Facebook and others. The company had raised<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/facebook-backed-meesho-raises-300-million-from-softbank-vision-fund-2-valuation-jumps-to-over-2-billion/amp_articleshow/81907721.cms?utm_campaign=fullarticle&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=inshorts"> $300 million</a> at a valuation of $2 billion. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/india-has-added-36191-new-companies-between-april-to-june-this-year/articleshow/84575166.cms">India added almost double the number of new businesses in the last three months compared to same time last year, while India was mostly under lockdown</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/jeff-bezos-intimate-messages-data-from-drug-cartels-adnan-kashoggi-the-many-things-pegasus-is-suspected-of-hacking-before-whatsapp/articleshow/71849602.cms">Jeff Bezos’ intimate messages, data from drug cartels, Jamal Kashoggi — the many things Pegasus is suspected of hacking instead of terrorists and criminals</a>

YouTube acquires two-year old Indian video commerce startup simsim

<ul><li>The company’s cofounder Bhavish Aggarwal will also be infusing an undisclosed amount.</li><li><keyword id="6354720" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ola">Ola</keyword> was founded in 2010 by Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati.</li><li>It had first announced its plans to go public in 2019.</li></ul>Ride hailing giant Ola has raised $500 million from investment titans Temasek and <keyword id="6402698" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="warburg-pincus">Warburg Pincus</keyword>, ahead of its initial public offering (IPO). The company’s chief executive and cofounder Bhavish Aggarwal will also be infusing an undisclosed amount in the Bengaluru-based startup in his personal capacity. “Over the last 12 months we’ve made our ride hailing business more robust, resilient and efficient. With strong recovery post lockdown and a shift in consumer preference away from public transportation, we are well positioned to capitalise on the various urban mobility needs of our customers,” Aggarwal said in a statement. Ola was founded in 2010 by Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati. The company has its presence across three continents. It has raised more than $4 billion to date from marquee investors like <keyword id="163404" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Softbank">SoftBank</keyword>, Tencent, <keyword id="6497288" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="steadview-capital">Steadview Capital</keyword>, Eternal, Sailing Capital, <keyword id="11602378" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="china-eurasian-economic-cooperation-fund">China Eurasian Economic Cooperation Fund</keyword> and others. It had been planning its public market debut since 2019. The company had also set up a pre-IPO trust in September 2019. Ola had also started to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/ola-is-shedding-flab-getting-a-makeover-as-it-rides-to-a-big-bang-ipo-in-2-years/articleshow/72292401.cms">restructure its business </a>with layoffs, optimising teams and adding more top executives to the mix. According to a Reuters<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ola-ipo-idUSKBN1Y30L9"> report</a> published in 2019, Ola was planning to hit the public market by March 2021.However the plans were obviously pushed back due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Ola had to lay off about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/ola-fired-1400-employees-as-revenue-is-hit-by-95-in-the-last-two-months/articleshow/75843656.cms">1,400 employees</a> from its workforce in May 2020, as its revenue had declined by 95% in the first two month of the pandemic-induced lockdown during wave one. "The fallout of the virus has been very tough for our industry in particular. Our revenue has come down 95% over the past 2 months. Most importantly, this crisis has affected the livelihoods of millions of our drivers and their families across India and our international geographies," Aggarwal had told Ola employees in an email. While Ola is planning its IPO, food delivery app Zomato is all set to hit the<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/zomato-ipo-to-open-on-july-14-with-shares-priced-at-72-76-apiece/articleshow/84226269.cms"> public market next week</a> on July 14. The Gurugram-based company has set the offer price for its shares at ₹72-76 apiece, to raise ₹9,375 crore ($1.3 billion) through this issue. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/live-teaching-platform-teachmint-app-raises-fresh-funding-of-20-million/articleshow/84257864.cms">Live teaching platform Teachmint raises fresh funding of $20 million after raising over $16 million two months ago</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/social-commerce-startup-dealshare-raises-144-million-from-tiger-global/articleshow/84227890.cms">Social commerce startup DealShare raises $144 million from Tiger Global</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/these-were-the-biggest-co-founder-exits-in-the-indian-startup-ecosystem/slidelist/84224683.cms">From Swiggy and Zomato to Ola and Delhivery — these startups have seen their co-founders exit for their next adventure</a>

Ola raises half-a-billion dollars from Temasek and Warburg ahead of its IPO

<ul><li>The <keyword id="4534291" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="edtech-startup">edtech startup</keyword> will use this funding to further develop their live teaching technology.</li><li>It had raised $16.5 million in its Series A round that closed in May 2021.</li><li><keyword id="9771244" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="teachmint">Teachmint</keyword> claims to have a million teachers on its platform from over 5000 cities in India.</li></ul><keyword id="11600718" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="live-teaching-platform">Live teaching platform</keyword> Teachmint has raised $20 million in its pre-Series B round led by San Francisco-based <keyword id="4627678" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Learn-Capital">Learn Capital</keyword>, with participation from CM Ventures. The edtech startup will use this funding to further develop their live teaching technology and expand into new geographies. Besides this, the company will also look into enhancement of its product and hiring talent. Teachmint had closed its Series A round in May 2021, with a funding of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/byjus-backer-lightspeed-india-invests-in-a-live-tutoring-platform-teachmint/articleshow/78924152.cms">$16.5 million</a>. The round was led by Learn Capital, with participation from CM Ventures, Lightspeed and Better Capital. Notably, the company’s claims that its valuation has jumped three times in the last two months. The edtech startup has not shared any more details about its valuation. Founded by <keyword id="55119" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-Institute-of-Technology">Indian Institute of Technology</keyword> (IIT)-Delhi and Bombay alumni Mihir Gupta, Payoj Jain, Divyansh Bordia and Anshuman Kumar in 2020, Teachmint has raised about $40 million to date. The founding team has previously worked with several big brands in the digital space, including OYO, McKinsey, Swiggy and Roposo. Teachmint enables teachers to conduct online classes through a two-way interactive learning solution that allows video sharing and more. The company also offers a tutoring management software-as-a-service (<keyword id="6395918" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="SAAS">SaaS</keyword>) to help teachers mark attendance, conduct tests, create virtual classrooms and more. The edtech startup claims to have more than one million teachers on board across over 5000 Indian cities and towns. The solution is available in 10 Indian languages apart from English. The company's other products are focused more on individual teachers. However, it has recently launched an institutional product for schools and colleges. Teachmint for Institutes offers educational institutions a platform to monitor all online classes and institute activities including fee collections, performance assessments and storing lectures. Teachmint’s chief executive Gupta said, “With our platform usage growing 25x [times] over the last quarter, we are becoming the default teaching application in India and the largest live teaching platform globally, outside China. Over the past 1 year, we have brought together some of the top minds in product and engineering to address the big technology-infrastructure gap in teaching and learning through our proprietary platform.” The company competes with another edtech platform ClassPlus, which recently closed a $<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/edtech-startup-classplus-raises-65-million-led-by-tiger-global-to-bring-more-tutors-online/articleshow/83810274.cms">65 million</a> round led by Tiger Global. Classplus offers a mobile-first software that allows coaching institutes, tuition centres and private tutors to take their traditionally offline classes online. It claims to serve a user base of 20 million students and 100,000 tutors across 1,500 cities in India. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/tcs-hires-over-20000-in-june-quarter-its-highest-ever-quarterly-addition/articleshow/84240423.cms">TCS has loaded up half a million peeps as it expects many to move on</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/social-commerce-startup-dealshare-raises-144-million-from-tiger-global/articleshow/84227890.cms">Social commerce startup DealShare raises $144 million from Tiger Global</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/zomato-ipo-to-open-on-july-14-with-shares-priced-at-72-76-apiece/articleshow/84226269.cms">Zomato IPO to open on July 14 ⁠with shares priced at ₹72-76 apiece</a>

Live teaching platform Teachmint raises fresh funding of $20 million after raising over $16 million two months ago

<ul><li>LB Investments co-led the round, with participation from <keyword id="2441277" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Samsung-Ventures">Samsung Ventures</keyword> and others.</li><li><keyword id="8861782" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Trell">Trell</keyword> has raised $62 million since its launch in 2017.</li><li>The company has over 100 million downloads and 50 million monthly active users.</li></ul>Bengaluru-based video-focused discovery platform Trell has raised $45 million in a Series B funding round led by financial group Mirae Asset, clothing and fashion brand H&amp;M Group. LB Investments co-led the round, with participation from KTB Network, Samsung Ventures and Fosun RZ Capital. Trell had raised $11.4 million in Series A funding, in August 2020, as a aftermath of the growth momentum it had gained post the TikTok ban in India. The discovery platform had also launched a <keyword id="623994" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-commerce">social commerce</keyword> section on its app around the same time to enable users to watch personalised product recommendations across beauty, personal care and wellness categories. Trell, founded in August 2017 by a team of Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay alumni Pulkit Agrawal, Prashant Sachan, Arun Lodhi and NITIE alumnus Bimal Kartheek Rebba, has raised $62 million to date. It will use the latest fundraise to expand its social commerce operations by entering the apparel, home care, mom and baby-care categories in the months to come. The startup claims to have over 100 million downloads on its platform and over 50 million monthly active users (MAU). Its content library features videos in 8 regional languages garnering over 20 billion monthly views, Trell said in a press note. The company is now looking to launch in additional six languages and expand its footprint in over 2000 cities and towns of India. Over the last few months, Trell has on boarded over 500 personal care and beauty brands, including Maybelline, L'Oréal and Garnier. “Trell has become the launchpad for many up-and-coming D2C [direct-to-consumer] brands and advertisers, who are leveraging our community of regional content creators to advertise their products and services on the platform… Our aim is to enable over 2000 brands to penetrate the deeper pockets of the country and communicate with their potential customers through regional content creators by 2022,” the company’s chief operating officer and co-founder Rebba, said. Meanwhile, the company’s chief technology officer and co-founder Lodhi added that they have been leveraging on their artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology and neural networks to create users’ psychographic profile of customers’ behavioural patterns on the platform. This allows the platform to provide personalised content and product recommendation for the customers. These developments have also led Trell to record 10-15 times year-on-year growth and 30% month-on-month growth since inception, the company said. Social commerce is still at a nascent stage in India, but the players in this segment have been growing at an exponential rate. Earlier in May, Meesho became the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/advertising/brands/article/meesho-the-latest-company-to-join-the-unicorn-club-aims-to-build-a-single-ecosystem-to-help-smbs/articleshow/81953840.cms">first social commerce</a> platform to enter the unicorn club. It has raised $515 million to date from <keyword id="163404" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Softbank">SoftBank</keyword>, FaceBook and <keyword id="270604" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sequoia">Sequoia</keyword>. DealShare, on the other hand, recently closed a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/social-commerce-startup-dealshare-raises-144-million-from-tiger-global/articleshow/84227890.cms">$144 million round</a>, taking its total fundraise to $183 million to date. Its investors include Tiger Global, <keyword id="678811" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Westbridge-Capital">WestBridge Capital</keyword>, Alpha Wave Incubation and Z3Partners. Other players in this segment are Glowroad,<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/citymall-a-startup-that-helps-budding-entrepreneurs-start-their-ventures-on-whatsapp-has-raised-over-22-million/articleshow/83741383.cms"> CityMall</a> and SimSim. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/flipkart-raises-3-6-billion-at-a-valuation-of-over-37-billion/articleshow/84338594.cms">Flipkart raises $3.6 billion at a valuation of over $37 billion, to focus on ‘millions of small and medium Indian businesses’</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/paytm-money-users-can-now-apply-for-zomato-ipo-from-today/articleshow/84334784.cms">Paytm Money now allows investors to apply for an IPO before opening, Zomato being the first</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/ola-electric-has-raised-100-million-in-debt-to-start-producing-its-electric-scooters-soon/articleshow/84338315.cms">Ola Electric has raised $100 million in debt to start producing its electric scooters soon</a>

Fashion retailer H&M has led a $45 million round in video discovery and commerce app Trell

<keyword id="6354576" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword> on Thursday said it has joined hands with early stage venture capital fund <keyword id="136057" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Matrix-Partners">Matrix Partners</keyword> to scale <keyword id="390673" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="small-businesses">small businesses</keyword> in India by providing them with timely digital skilling support. The move comes barely a week after the social networking giant announced a grant of $4.3 million (Rs 32 crore) for more than 3,000 small businesses in Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru impacted by Covid-19. The tie-up with Matrix Partners is a part of Facebook's VC Brand Incubator Programme that collaborates with venture capital funds to help early-stage small and medium businesses (SMBs) to maximise their digital potential. In light of the pandemic, Facebook has taken the programme online to ensure continued skilling and support for small businesses even in these times. "Facebook is committed to supporting the growth of small businesses in India, and this charter is stronger than ever as we work towards enabling their recovery from the pandemic," Archana Vohra, Director, Small and Medium Businesses at Facebook India, said in a statement. With the tie-up with Matrix Partners India, the program also completes one year during which it has collaborated with six VC Funds -- Sauce.VC, Fireside Ventures, SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital, DSG Ventures, and Matrix Partners India. During this period, the programme has skilled, trained and mentored more than 150 brands at various stages of their growth journey. Matrix Partners India is a leading early-stage investor that partners closely with SMBs across sectors including consumer technology, business-to-business, enterprise, and fintech among others. In India, among many other brands, they have also invested in marquee companies such as Ola, Quikr, Practo, Dailyhunt, Mswipe, Country Delight, and Razorpay among others. "We've been early backers in many challenger brands from across the spectrum -- eCommerce, gaming, CPG, neo-banking, healthcare, content – to name a few, and we're thrilled to see them create world-beating products and leverage Facebook's platform to reach their end consumers, and bring about large scale impact," said Sanjot Malhi, Director, Matrix India. "Over 20 companies from our portfolio, including Country Delight, Stanza Living, OZiva, ManMatters, Zupee, The Whole Truth, Dealshare, have now partnered with Facebook on this programme." As part of the VC Brand Incubator Programme, Facebook has also started Campaign Lab that helps direct-to-consumer small businesses get creative solutioning support, and go live with mobile friendly creatives and strategy in under 72 hours. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/this-startup-wants-to-turn-kirana-stores-into-electric-vehicle-charging-stations/articleshow/78289491.cms">This startup wants to turn kirana stores into electric vehicle charging stations</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/yes-bank-is-hiring-again-for-the-coming-year-after-workforce-shrinks-by-1000-since-march/articleshow/78287419.cms">EXCLUSIVE: YES Bank's workforce shrank by 1,000 employees since March but now it's hiring again for the coming year</a>

Facebook partners with sixth VC firm in India – Matrix Partners to scale small businesses

<ul><li>According to an ET report, as many as 200,000 job openings have been advertised across job platforms like LinkedIn over the last one month.</li><li>Ecommerce and edtech platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Byju’s and Grofers are <keyword id="6357342" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hiring">hiring</keyword> across verticals including backend development roles and digital operations.</li><li>As per data by staffing firm Xpheno, nine in ten <keyword id="11018" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jobs">jobs</keyword> are offering full time roles while the rest are part time and contractual. </li><li>As much as 79% of the total job openings are in the IT and ITeS domain and most of the roles are those of software engineers, programmers, full-stack developers and sales and marketing.</li></ul>The <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus">Coronavirus</keyword> crisis has hit appraisals, salaries and jobs. But the market is still hiring. <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/200000-reasons-for-job-market-cheer/articleshow/75239113.cms?from=mdr">According to</a> an ET report, as many as 200,000 job openings have been advertised across job platforms like LinkedIn over the last one month. In fact, one in four job vacancies was posted last week. Looks like companies in India are still looking for candidates despite the downturn, so as to rebound stronger. Ecommerce and edtech platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Byju’s and Grofers are hiring across verticals including backend development roles and digital operations. As per the data by staffing firm Xpheno, nine in ten jobs are offering full time roles while the rest are part time and contractual. This is across levels but most of them are for entry-level positions. That accounts for at least <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/200000-reasons-for-job-market-cheer/articleshow/75239113.cms?from=mdr">80,000 fresher jobs</a>. The IT sector is also set to gain as most of India today is <keyword id="889044" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="working-from-home">working from home</keyword>, given the pandemic. As much as 79% of the total job openings are in the IT and ITeS domain and most of the roles are those of software engineers, programmers, full-stack developers and sales and marketing. This may be because productivity is not being negatively impacted despite shutdown. “More companies are asking their employees to work from home, believing that productivity won’t get affected — which means that this is the future of work and interaction where the companies no longer need to assemble people in places,” entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala said. On the other hand, e-commerce and BFSI account for 15% of the jobs. <a href="https://www.ibtimes.co.in/bigbasket-grofers-hire-over-15k-employees-list-companies-who-are-hiring-now-despite-covid-19-817606">BigBasket and Grofers</a> are also hiring over 15,000 employees to address the surge in demand.This is as the sectors that are focussed on delivery of essential goods and services are witnessing a positive hiring trend. “Consumers will become further warmed up to the concept of online buying. Consumer demand has increased by an average of 50%. On our platform, we are witnessing a 50% spike in daily average orders. In fact, our business has also grown by 60%,” Sourjyendu Medda, CBO and Founder of DealShare, which is providing essential services to Tier II and Tier III cities, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/here-are-the-sectors-that-can-gain-in-the-times-of-coronavirus/articleshow/75019841.cms">told Business Insider. </a> See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/here-are-the-sectors-that-can-gain-in-the-times-of-coronavirus/articleshow/75019841.cms">These three sectors can grow and even hire people despite Covid-19 crisis</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/byjus-unacademy-upgrad-and-other-edtech-companies-hiring-now/articleshow/75243374.cms">Byju's, Unacademy, upGrad and other edtech companies hiring now</a>

200,000 job openings posted in the last four weeks — and 80,000 of them are entry level positions

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/antjeverena/6044062609">antjeverena on Flickr Creative Commons</a>A business deal?Sharing meals is a meaningful tool for trust building in nearly all cultures. But in some cultures, sharing drinks - particularly alcoholic drinks - is equally important.I once conducted a training program for a German couple moving to Japan, assisted by Hiroki, a wise and entertaining Japanese culture specialist. The German asked Hiroki how to get his Japanese colleagues to tell him what was really going on: "They are so formal and quiet. I worry if I am not able to build the necessary trust, I won't get the information I need from them."Hiroki thought quietly for a moment and then responded with only a small trace of humor in his eyes: "Best strategy is to drink with them.""To drink?" the German client questioned."Yes, drink until you fall down."When Hiroki said this, I thought back to my first-ever ride in the Tokyo metro, when I saw several groups of Japanese businessmen stumbling through the station as they traveled home after a long evening of well-lubricated socializing. I now realized they were following Hiroki's advice - quite literally.If you look at Japan on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-culture-map-8-scales-for-work-2015-1">the Trusting scale</a>, you will see that it is a relationship-based culture, though not as far to the right as China or India. During the day, the Japanese generally take a task-based approach - but the relationship building that happens in the evening can be critical to business success.In Japanese culture, where group-harmony and avoiding open conflict are overriding goals, drinking provides an opportunity to let down your hair and express your real thoughts. Drinking is a great platform for sharing your true inner feelings (what are called honne rather than tatemae feelings) as well as for recognizing where bad feelings or conflict might be brewing and to strive to address them before they turn to problems. Under no circumstances should the discussions of the night before be mentioned the next day. Drinking alcohol is therefore an important Japanese bonding ritual not only with clients, but also within one's own team.Many Japanese use drinking to forge connections, as captured by the bilingual expression nomunication, stemming from the Japanese verb nomu ("to drink"). Japanese salespeople frequently woo their clients over drinks, knowing that although explicit deal making is never done during this type of socializing, a deal is rarely won with- out it. Of course, drinking to build trust is not just a Japanese custom. Across East Asia, whether you are working in China, Thailand, or Korea, doing a substantial amount of drinking with customers and collaborators is a common step in the trust-building process.Many people from task-based cultures don't get it. "Why would I risk making a fool of myself in front of the very people I need to impress?" they wonder. But that is exactly the point. When you share a round of drinks with a business partner, you show that person you have nothing to hide. And when they "drink until they fall down" with you, they show you that they are willing to let their guard down completely. "Don't worry about looking stupid," Hiroki reassured our German manager, who had begun wringing his hands nervously. "The more you are willing to remove social barriers in the evening, the more they will see you as trustworthy."Alcohol is not the only way to build a business relationship. If you don't drink, you can certainly find other ways to partake in the fun; in Japan, a round of karaoke or a trip to the spa can do wonders. And in Arab cultures, where alcohol is avoided, you can forget beer and relax instead over a cup of tea.This excerpt adapted with permission from "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Culture-Map-Invisible-Boundaries/dp/1610392507">The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business</a>" (2014) by INSEAD professor <a href="http://www.erinmeyer.com/">Erin Meyer</a>, from PublicAffairs. <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-headphones-tricks-2015-2">14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

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YouTube acquires two-year old Indian video commerce startup simsim

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Ola raises half-a-billion dollars from Temasek and Warburg ahead of its IPO

Kritti Bhalla

Live teaching platform Teachmint raises fresh funding of $20 million after raising over $16 million two months ago

Kritti Bhalla

Fashion retailer H&M has led a $45 million round in video discovery and commerce app Trell

Kritti Bhalla

Facebook partners with sixth VC firm in India – Matrix Partners to scale small businesses

IANS

200,000 job openings posted in the last four weeks — and 80,000 of them are entry level positions

Prerna Sindwani

Why getting drunk is so important in Japanese business relations

Erin Meyer, "The Culture Map"