News Roundup: 8 Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [1 February – 6 February]

Brian Olsavsky Amazon CFO reported that Amazon India’s sellers on marketplace sold more products in the fourth quarter of 2015 than in all four quarters combined in 2014. The quarter saw Amazon’s worldwide revenue increase by 22% to $35.7 Bn. The company also launched its grocery delivery app in India by the name Amazon Now. The app will deliver everyday essentials in two hours

Important Developments Of The Week

Snapdeal Pilots Home Services Category

Snapdeal started pilot of its  home-services category across four cities – Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Pune. Easyfix, Hicare, Terminix SIS and Jack On Block are the four service providers listed on its website.

Junglee To Sell Used Goods

Amazon plans to launch the service to sell used goods on its subsidiary Junglee.com. The initiative will be led by Mahendra Nerurkar, General Manager at Junglee. It will compete with predominant players like OLX and Quikr.

Amazon Traders Alleged Of $30 Mn Tax Evasion

Amazon and the traders associated with it have been alleged of tax evasion of about $30 Mn (INR 200 Cr.) by misusing Cenvat (central value added tax) credit facilities. The Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) is investigating their accounts.

ZipGo Suspends Services

ZipGo again suspended its services in Bangalore after the state transport department alleged them of violating rules and operating without permits.

Hiree Fires 10% Workforce

Hiree laid off 10-15% of its workforce mainly from the sales department. During July-August 2015, Hiree had started team expansion and hired senior employees from companies like DELL, Oracle, etc. to boost its sales efforts.

Jabong Registers 35% Growth In Revenues

With lowest cash burn in 24 months and best improvement in EBITDA margin in a end of season sale month, Jabong targets to be India’s first ecommerce company to breakeven. Jade eServices Pvt. Ltd., which runs Jabong in India, registered the highest-ever month-on-month (M-o-M) growth of nearly 35% in its net revenue for January 2016. The traffic to the Jabong app has also grown by 20% in this month.

IndianRoots Launches Fashion Business Accelerator

NDTV’s ethnic ecommerce venture, IndianRoots, launched Fashion Business Accelerator in partnership with 6Degree, to boost budding fashion professionals. The incubator aims at providing state of the art facilities and opportunities for fashion professionals to grow their business. The stipulated duration of incubation is 6 months, and is extendable to 1 year on review.

Other Developments Of The Week

Meru To Launch Intercity Ride Sharing

After the successful rollout of ride-sharing services in Delhi, Meru Cab will launch similar services for its inter-city operations on two routes initially – Mumbai-Pune and Bangalore-Chennai.

PayUmoney Ties Up With FreePaisa

To facilitate transfer of earnings for users PayUmoney tied up with FreePaisa. FreePaisa users can now spend across 1,00,000+ ecommerce sites like BookMyShow, Myntra, MakeMyTrip, Domino’s and many more.

Droom Expands Service To 100 Cities

Droom expanded its services to 100 cities across the country. The automobile marketplace has increased its sellers to over 26,000 from 20, last year. It has also increased its listings to over 90,000 from 200 in the same period.

MyOperator Ties Up With Lenskart

MyOperator has associated with Lenskart.com to simplify Lenskart’s daily backend operations. The alliance is aimed at the acceleration and mechanization of the backend processes, which not only make daily procedures more efficient,but also saves the company its associated costs.

MoboMoney Launches Sound-Based Contactless Payments

Tech Mahindra’s NFC-based digital payment wallet, MoboMoney, tied up with ToneTag, to launch sound based contactless payments. This association will help MoboMoney to be used for offline payments without revealing user’s mobile number.

Uber Partners With Labour Ministry

In a bid to boost entrepreneurial ecosystem Uber has partnered with the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment. As a part of the agreement, individuals who want to join the Uber fleet will have to sign up via online portal – National Career Service (NCS).

Jugnoo Launches Windows App

With growing popularity among the commuters, Jugnoo provides access to Windows phone users. With this App, Windows phone users will be able to book their Jugnoo ride with a single click.

Primaseller Launches POS Android App

Primaseller launched India’s first app-based POS (Point of Sale) software that also integrates across multiple online and offline sources of order. This will help sellers manage offline business through one dashboard.

ShopClues Introduces Image Search Tool

Offering a virtual shopping experience to its customers on the go, Shopclues launched Image Search Tool on its Android app. The tool enables advanced visual recognition of a certain product and shows more options that are similar in terms of colour, style, pattern, design, material, etc.

Spice Hotspot Partners With WudStay

WudStay partnered with Spice Hotspot to help users enhance their travel experience using their smartphone. With over 300 stores across the country, Spice Hotspot will offer its customers an opportunity to book WudStay hotels across 40+ cities at special discounted rates with exclusive deals and packages especially for Spice Hotspot Customers.

Just Buy Live Launches ‘Udhaar by Just Pay’

Empowering India’s Aam Dukandaar Just Buy Live and Religare Finvest Limited, partnered with each other to launch a revolutionary credit product for retailers across the country called Udhaar by Just Pay. The product aims to offer structured credit lines for stock-in-trade requirements to retailers.

Zappfresh Ties Up With SRS Grocery

The tie up will enable Zappfresh to reach out to over 100,000 plus customers of SRS grocery in Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad. Besides, customers of SRS Grocery will now be able to choose from a wide range of over 40 high quality fresh non-vegetarian options including chicken, mutton, fish & pork and pre-cooked items like ham, sausages and salami.

Babajob Announces 5 Mn Registered Job Seekers

Babajob.com announced the registration of 5 Mn jobseekers on their platform. The startup leverages technology to help access better employment opportunities and facilitate a quick, reliable hiring process for employers looking to hire these individuals from anywhere across India.

Medidaili Launches New Platform

Medidaili Technologies Pvt. Ltd announced the launch of its customised app that will provide specialised medical support services including diagnostics, healthcare packages and emergency services at the touch of a button.The app will enable easy facilitation of reliable healthcare services on a single platform.

Ola Share Expands To 7 Cities

Ola announced the launch of Ola Share  across 7 more cities including Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune.

Ameyo Launches New Cloud Contact Center Software

Ameyo announced the launch of Ameyo Emerge- a powerful new cloud offering that helps businesses to integrate seamlessly across channels. With Ameyo Emerge, emerging businesses such as hyperlocal mobile app aggregators, hyper-local marketplaces, e-commerce, etc., can now create world-class contact centers without investing on hardware or coding.

Holachef Brings Wider Food Ordering Options

Holachef announced the launch of breakfast and evening snacks section in the menu for Mumbai consumers. With this, consumers get access to a wider food menu comprising of healthy, tasty and qualitative food service starting from 9 in the morning to 11.30 in the night.

Routofy Launches Android App

Routofy announced the launch of its application for Android platform. The app allows users to avail its new feature of making instant multi-modal travel bookings.

PIKKOL Partners With Zoomcar

Relocation services aggregator PIKKOL partnered with Zoomcar to provide hassle free mobility for consumers opting for Pikkol’s relocation services.

GoGo To Leverage Twitter Fabric For User Engagement

GoGo announced that it has become the first app in India to fully leverage all major Twitter’s Fabric software development kits (SDKs) for enhanced user experience including Crashlytics, Twitter Kit, Digits and MoPub.

Shimply Launches Mobile App With Patented Pending Technology

Shimply.com, a multi­ category online bazaar for Indian products has launched its mobile app. The app features a patent pending technology of Virtual Trial Room which gives the freedom to see in advance how the products of your choice look on you, before you decide on one.

Fitpass launches its services in India

Fitpass provides its users the ability to freely workout across 1,000+ gyms and fitness studios in the city with more than 100,000 daily workout options to choose from. The app is available on web, iOS and Android. Fitpass also has 6 proprietary products aptly.

Chargebee Debuts Its “Launch Program”

To fuel its subscription businesses, Chargebee Inc., under this program, Chargebee will offer all of its services to new businesses and startups for free until they generate up to $50K in revenue.

Bikxie Launches Cashless Payments With MoboMoney

Bikxie, the two-wheeler taxi service provider has exclusively tied up with MoboMoney to offer cashless rides to its passengers.