Apple inaugurated its first two stores in India this week, in New Delhi and Mumbai. CEO Tim Cook personally attended both openings in the country that has long eluded Apple's business. Most of the Indians in the past have chosen mostly for cheaper electronics, for example smartphones from Chinese brands.
This is a quite surprising fact that the global urban population has taken over the rural population. According to the records of the year 2007, the two groups were split nearly 50/50, with around 3.3 billion people apiece. In today’s date, the percentage of people who live in the urban areas has grown to be over 55% and is expected to reach 68% by the year 2050. It is because of this trend that many of the world’s largest cities have become home to millions of people.
Due to this increasing density in the urban areas, different
businesses, households and also governments have installed numerous security
cameras which could serve many purposes but the mainly being crime protection.
To get a hold of the scale of this surveillance, data from a recent report by
Comparitech is taken which helps to visualize the most surveilled cities in the
world.
Twitter is expanding Tweet sharing beyond its own platform by testing a new WhatsApp sharing button exclusively in India, and enabling Tweet sharing to Snapchat and IG Stories on Android, which was previously only available on iOS, as well as launching a new option to share Tweets to LinkedIn.
WhatsApp remains the most popular messaging app in India, with over 487 million users, which explains Twitter’s initiative to test the new WhatsApp sharing button in India in particular. Twitter explains the test, saying, “We are replacing the share icon on Tweets with the WhatsApp icon for the majority of people who use Twitter on Android in the country, so sharing their favorite or noteworthy Tweets is easy even beyond Twitter, making the experience more open, accessible, and holistic for them.”
Instagram is updating Reels with a new content-display addition that
shows a ‘Following’ tab next to the main Reels Feed. Is Instagram trying to
make Reels look even more like Tik-Tok’s display? It seems so.
Instagram is testing the new addition with users in India, who
are able to access the new tab with a side-swipe, which shows a screen with the
latest Reels clips in different categories, that can be scrolled through.
It’s no surprise that Instagram decided to bring an alternating Feed approach to Reels, since this is something that drives most of TikTok’s success, which has both the Following and For You tabs. By swiping to and scrolling through the Following Feed in Reels, users can explore more specific content from the accounts that they follow, which would boost engagement with the feature.
YouTube
launched health labels for videos last year to control the spread of
misinformation regarding health-related topics, and is now introducing them to
more regions. These include three regions in particular: Brazil, India
and Japan.
In addition to this, YouTube plans to add a 'health content
shelf' that would contain reliable information from recognized sources that
people can refer to.
TikTok’s growth is rising around the world as it is becoming
an app of interest for more and more people. However, the app is banned in India,
where Instagram is now taking its place as people are resorting to Instagram Reels
instead.
According to Sensor Tower’s report on app performance of Q4
2021, Instagram’s installs in the fourth quarter rose 10% over the third
quarter. Although TikTok has been leading the download charts for the past two
years, Instagram’s rise came through after the platform started getting
increasing attention from Indian users, especially on Android. The statistics
show that 39% of the app’s downloads in Q4 came from India.
Google has removed some lending apps that are aimed at Indian
consumers from its Play Store after reviewing them based on flags it received from
users and government agencies. According to the company, it took this action for
the protection of users.
Reportedly, around 10 of the apps were removed from the Play
Store as they violated Google’s policies regarding loan repayment lengths aimed
at protecting vulnerable borrowers. Google, however, has not confirmed the
exact number of apps that it took down.
In this process, Google contacted companies and inquired them about their compliance with Google’s rules and regulations.
Twitter suspends the account of Sci-Hub pic.twitter.com/XQfNYmR1Ra
— Catalin Cimpanu (@campuscodi) January 8, 2021
India was under immense shortage of toilets prior to
Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister. It was an issue that resonated in the
world and was made a laughing stock by many people. Just under 40 percent of
the population had access to the household toilets. It was a problem in the
country with over a billion population.
Professional sports earn a lot of viewership from all across
the world or even a single country. The dawn of fantasy sports came somewhere
in the 2010s and it upped the game exponentially. A country where a lot of
sports are played, the fantasy leagues skyrocket when the season comes.
According to PUBG Corporation, PUBG Mobile is coming back to India, the world’s second largest internet market, after being banned in the country. The game will make an appearance in a new avatar, called as PUBG Mobile India and has been especially created for users in India.
PUBG Corporation also added that it is planning to make an investment worth $100 million in India, along with parent firm KRAFTON. The purpose behind the investment is to cultivate the local video game, esports, entertainment, and IT industries ecosystems in the country. Moreover, it plans to recruit 100 employees in India.
PUBG was banned in India as a result of cybersecurity concerns, alongside more than 200 other apps that were linked to China, including TikTok.
OTT, or Over the Top platforms, has become the ultimate source of entertainment for people, as they continue to be confined in their homes. Even before the global pandemic hit us all, OTT platforms were popular. But ever since the lockdown began in many countries, OTT platforms have only achieved more success than ever. With nothing to do at home, these platforms provide the highest quality content over the Internet, in exchange for a certain amount of subscription fee.
Since cinemas are included in this ongoing lockdown situation all over the world, it has affected many films that were due to be released. Let's examine how the Indian entertainment industry has altered its ways in the face of the strict lockdown. Where Amazon Prime and Netflix are among the top OTT platforms in the world and rule many markets, the Indian market is being ruled mainly by Hotstar, a local platform, and Disney+. It is to be noted that Disney+ is gradually spreading its services all over the world and is still not completely available elsewhere.
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