Tag: flipkart

Meesho Posts First-Ever Profit, Plans IPO in 12-18 Months

Indian e-commerce startup Meesho has posted its first-ever profit and is targeting a stock market listing in the next 12-18 months, a senior company executive said in an interview. 

Meesho competes with Amazon and Walmart‘s Flipkart in India’s fast-growing e-commerce market, with its website becoming popular by targeting smaller towns and cities with unbranded products like clothes and cosmetics. It was last valued at nearly $7 billion (nearly Rs. 57,930 crore), PitchBook data shows.

After posting losses since inception in 2015, Meesho, which is backed by Japan’s SoftBank, recorded profits for the first time last month, it said in a statement. 

Its revenue between January-June was more than $400 million (nearly Rs. 3,300 crore), and Meesho expects it to cross $800 million (nearly Rs. 6,620 crore) by the year end, Chief Financial officer Dhiresh Bansal told Reuters on Friday.

“Since we just turned from negative to positive, it’s a small nominal kind of number, single digit of course… We intend to continue the profitability trajectory,” he said without sharing specifics.

An initial public offering (IPO) is now being planned in the next 12-18 months, Bansal added.

“We feel that the growth, scale and profitability are there (for an IPO), but you also want to make sure that there is enough of a track record for market investors to look at.”

Meesho, which was founded by Indian Institute of Technology graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, clocked more than 1 billion orders in the last 12 months. 

Meesho’s first profit comes at a time when Indian startups have been struggling to raise funds due to a funding squeezeworsened by higher interest rates and a global tech market rout. Many Indian startups have fired thousands of employees and cut costs aggressively in recent months. 

Last week, Indian food delivery giant Zomato also posted its first-ever profit.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

Is the iQoo Neo 7 Pro the best smartphone you can buy under Rs. 40,000 in India? We discuss the company’s recently launched handset and what it has to offer on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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PhonePe Launches Feature to Pay Income Tax Through Its App

Digital payments and fintech platform PhonePe on Monday launched a feature to pay income tax through its app. 

Individuals and businesses can pay self-assessment and advance tax through UPI or credit card via the application, without logging into the income tax portal, PhonePe said.

The amount will be credited to the tax portal within two working days.

Users can pay taxes by logging into the app and selecting the “income tax” icon. Then, they must select the type of tax to be paid, assessment year and Permanent Account Number (PAN) details. After entering the total tax amount, users will be able to pay using the chosen mode of payment.

Taxpayers will receive a Unique Transaction Reference (UTR) number as an acknowledgement within one working day after paying the tax while challan for the payment will be available within two working days, it added.

Niharika Saigal, Head of Bill Payments and Recharge Business at PhonePe said, “Paying taxes can often be a complex and time-consuming task, and PhonePe is now offering its users a hassle-free and secure way to fulfill their tax obligations…this will transform the way our users pay taxes as we have now made the process both simple and easy.” PhonePe has partnered with digital B2B payments service provider PayMate for enabling the feature.

Started in 2015, the Walmart subsidiary was recently separated from its e-commerce sibling Flipkart. PhonePe has about 50 crore registered users and processes 45 per cent of transactions on Bharat Bill Pay System (BBPS). The company became a fintech in 2017 and launched mutual funds and insurance products. 

Will the Nothing Phone 2 serve as the successor to the Phone 1, or will the two co-exist? We discuss the company’s recently launched handset and more on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Xiaomi Plans to Boost Smartphone Sale in India as Samsung Struggles

China’s Xiaomi will focus on boosting its India sales from retail outlets after years of big bets on e-commerce, its India president said, as the company seeks to revive smartphone sales after falling behind South Korea’s Samsung.

E-commerce sales in India via Amazon and Walmart‘s Flipkart have surged in recent years, helping Xiaomi and others expand in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets, with 600 million smartphone users.

But while 44 percent of India’s smartphones sales are now online, the brick-and-mortar segment remains the bigger play and Xiaomi expects it to grow further.

“Our market position in offline is substantially lower than what it is online,” Xiaomi’s India head, Muralikrishnan B, said in an interview on Friday. “Offline is where you have other competitors who have been executing fairly well and have a larger market share.”

Just 34 percent of Xiaomi’s India unit sales this year have come from retail stores, with the rest through websites that have long been its dominant sales generator, data from Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research shows. Samsung, in contrast, gets 57 percent of its sales from stores.

Xiaomi plans to expand its store network beyond the current 18,000 and increasingly partner with phone vendors to offer other products, such as Xiaomi TVs or security cameras, where Muralikrishnan said competition is less intense.

He said Xiaomi found some partner stores that put its bright orange branding outside shops were displaying rival brands more prominently inside, a marketing issue the company would address.

Xiaomi’s offline push comes months after it lost its leadership position to Samsung, which had a much bigger portfolio of premium phones now in vogue. The South Korean giant has a 20 percent market share in India, while Xiaomi, which historically focussed on budget phones, has 16 percent.

“Offline remains a key platform as India embraces the premiumisation trend,” said Counterpoint analyst Tarun Pathak. “Consumers spending more would like to have the look and feel of the premium product.”

Xiaomi plans to hire more store promoters — salespeople who lure, pitch and sell phones to prospective buyers inside outlets. It targets tripling the count to 12,000 promoters by the end of next year from early 2023 levels, Muralikrishnan said.

Another significant India challenge for Xiaomi is a federal agency’s $673 million (nearly Rs. 5,500 crore) freeze on its bank assets since last year. The agency alleges Xiaomi made illegal remittances to foreign entities in the name of royalties. The company denies wrongdoing.

“We’ll continue to be confident… that ultimately our position will be heard and validated,” Muralikrishnan said.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

Will the Nothing Phone 2 serve as the successor to the Phone 1, or will the two co-exist? We discuss the company’s recently launched handset and more on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Flipkart to Distribute Axis Bank Personal Loans of Up to Rs. 5 Lakh Amid RBI Concerns on Unsecured Lending

Walmart-owned Flipkart on Friday announced that it will be distributing Axis Bank’s personal loans on the e-commerce platform.

The platform, which has 450 million customers, will be distributing loans of up to Rs 5 lakh which can be repaid in up to three years, it said in a statement.

The announcement comes amid reports of RBI’s concerns on the high growth in the more riskier unsecured lending segment like personal loans and credit cards.

“As Indian consumers continue to evolve, an increasing aspiration exists to enhance their lifestyles,” the Flipkart statement said.

The facility in tie-up with the third largest private sector lender will empower customers with increased purchasing power, it added.

Flipkart’s senior vice president for fintech and payments group, Dheeraj Aneja said the e-commerce platform already offers financing avenues like Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), Equated Monthly Installments (EMI), and Co-branded Credit Cards to support buyers.

“Our focus is to enable credit and enhance purchasing power by granting access to liquidity precisely when needed. These financial solutions cater to the evolving demands of consumers, offering greater flexibility and convenience throughout their purchasing journeys,” Aneja added.

Axis Bank’s president and head of digital business and transformation, Sameer Shetty, said the bank will be able to offer lending to a wider spectrum of customers through the partnership.

Customers will be able to get loan approvals in 30 seconds under the partnership, the statement said.

E-commerce giants like Flipkart and Amazon came under the government’s scanner last month when center took a serious note of ‘dark patterns’ and asked e-commerce firms to create a self-regulatory framework to stop such practices.

Dark patterns refer to practices that deliberately exploit the consumers on the internet, like adding items to a shopping cart even though a user has not opted for it, changing the price of a product at the time of checking out or even creating a false sense of urgency to advance a buying decision. 

From the Nothing Phone 2 to the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra, several new smartphones are expected to make their debut in July. We discuss all of the most exciting smartphones coming this month and more on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Google, Apple Representatives to Meet Parliamentary Panel to Discuss Cyber Security

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has called representatives of several banks such as the Punjab National Bank as well as global and national tech majors, including Google, Apple and Paytm, next week to discuss issues related to cyber security and rising cases of cyber crimes.

The committee, headed by BJP’s Jayant Sinha, has called the representatives of the Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of India, Yes Bank and Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) on July 4 to take oral evidence on “cyber security and rising incidence of cyber/white collar crimes”. On the same day, it has separately called representatives of tech majors One97 Communications (Paytm), Flipkart, Google and Apple on the same issue.

Cyber crimes have become an increasing threat with savvy online operators resorting to various tricks to defraud people of their money. The issue of cyber security and rising incidence of cyber crimes was at the centre of deliberations at a meeting of the panel held earlier this month too as experts from the industry were quizzed by lawmakers about various facets of unlawful activities, including fraud loan applications. The issue of fraud lending apps, which have been hitting headlines with rising complaints of people being swindled or forced to pay exorbitant interest rates, was also discussed at the meeting.

The firms represented at the earlier meeting included Chase India, Razorpay, PhonePe, CRED and QNu Labs as well as Nasscom, a premier trade body and chamber of commerce of the tech industry in India.

The parliamentary committee includes P Chidambaram, Sougata Roy, Sushil Modi, Amar Patnaik, among others.

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E-Commerce Majors Amazon, Flipkart Welcome to Join Network, Says ONDC Head

E-commerce majors such as Amazon and Flipkart have been invited to join India’s digital public infrastructure Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), said the network’s Chief Executive Officer T Koshi.

In an interaction with ANI, Koshi said it invited them and they were welcome to the network.

“They are looking at (ONDC) seriously and we believe that whenever they feel comfortable with respect to their current scale and size of the operation and their system, they will seriously look at it. But as of now, they have not integrated. They made some statements with respect to their participation and also their intent,” Koshi told ANI.

ONDC is a non-profit company established by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to develop open e-commerce.

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is aimed at promoting open source networks for all to exchange goods and services on the internet, and most importantly it is independent of any specific platform.

Incorporated on December 31, 2021, ONDC goes beyond the current platform-centric digital commerce model where the buyer and seller have to use the same platform or application to be digitally visible and do a business transaction.

India has developed some of the finest digital public goods infrastructure which could change lives the world over, and the next in line could be its Open Network for Digital Commerce which currently is in its nascent stage of adoption. India has taken the path of building the public digital infrastructure for serving citizens and UPI, and Jan Dhan, Aadhar and CoWin are some of examples.

ONDC operations started in January and had just 40 transactions per day which have now peaked upwards of 30,000 for goods and 50,000 for services.

He added the platform is attracting interest from both big players to small merchants.

“We’re seeing that now that we have much more control on the terms and conditions of the transaction, and much better pricing and costing in this network. They have started announcing many special schemes for the customers that they come to open networks for digital commerce. We believe that kind of trend will start happening in the coming months where they realize the freedom this democratization is providing to the vendors.”

Currently, grocery and food items merchants are mostly part of it, but beauty, fashion, personal care products, and electronics, among others, are gradually joining in and going live on the platform. 

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Realme 11 Pro+ 5G Sold Over 60,000 Units in India on First Day of Sale

Realme 11 Pro+ 5G has sold over 60,000 units in India, the company announced on Friday. With this new sales milestone, the Realme 11 Pro+ 5G smartphone claimed to have broken the company’s highest first-sales record in the above-Rs. 25,000 price segment. The Realme 10 Pro+ 5G successor with a 200-megapixel triple rear camera unit and 100W fast charging went on sale in India on June 15 through Flipkart and realme.com. The Realme 11 Pro+ 5G has an AMOLED display and runs on MediaTek Dimensity 7050 SoC. It is backed by a 5,000mAh battery.

Realme via Twitter announced that Realme 11 Pro+ 5G received a tremendous response in the country and sold over 60,000 units in a day. According to Realme, it is the company’s highest first-sales record above-Rs. 25,000 price segment.

Additionally, both Realme 11 Pro+ 5G and Realme 11 Pro 5G marked the highest ‘First Sale’ record on Flipkart in Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 30,000 segment.

Price of Realme 11 Pro+ 5G in India starts at Rs. 27,999 for the base 8GB RAM + 256GB storage model, while the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage variant is priced at Rs. 29,999. It is available in Astral Black, Oasis Green, and Sunrise Beige colour options. Pricing of Realme 11 Pro 5G, on the other hand, starts at Rs. 23,999.

Realme 11 Pro+ 5G specifications

The Realme 11 Pro+ 5G sports a 6.7-inch full-HD+ (1,080 x 2,412 pixels) curved AMOLED display. It is powered by an octa-core 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 7050 SoC paired with a Mali-G68 GPU and up to 12GB of RAM. It boasts a triple camera unit at the rear, housing a 200-megapixel Samsung HP3 primary sensor, accompanied by an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle sensor, and a 2-megapixel macro sensor. It features a 32-megapixel selfie camera as well.

The Realme 11 Pro+ 5G is backed by a 5,000mAh battery with 100W SuperVOOC fast charging support.

Realme might not want the Mini Capsule to be the defining feature of the Realme C55, but will it end up being one of the phone’s most talked-about hardware specifications? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Flipkart, PhonePe Could Be $100 Billion Businesses in India, Claims Walmart CFO

Walmart‘s Flipkart marketplace and PhonePe payments business in India could be $100 billion (Rs. 8,19,750 crore) businesses buoyed by strong growth, the retailer’s chief financial officer said on Wednesday at an investor conference.

Walmart does not break out sales of Flipkart and PhonePe but over the past few months, executives have singled out the two businesses as key drivers in meeting its target of doubling the gross merchandise volume it sells in foreign markets to $200 billion (nearly Rs. 16,20,800 crore)  in five years.

Walmart’s international chief has previously called India’s 1.4 billion population a “significant” opportunity for the retailer.

In its most recent quarter ended April 30, Walmart said its Flipkart business generated double-digit sales growth, boosted by new shoppers in some cities and a 50 percent jump in ad sales. Flipkart was valued at more than $40 billion (nearly Rs. 3,27,900 crore) in 2022 and counts itself among India’s most valuable startups.

Walmart also called PhonePe’s performance “really impressive” after it hit an annualized payment value led by the Unified Payments Interface, a highly popular method in India to make instant real-time payments.

PhonePe controlled 46 percent share of the payments market in December, according to National Payments Corporation of India, and has 400 million registered users. In March, Walmart gave that business a boost by pouring an additional $200 million (nearly Rs. 1,640 crore) at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion (nearly Rs. 98,360 crore) cementing its position as India’s most valuable payments startup.

“It is not crazy to think that both those businesses could be $100 billion businesses in the future,” Walmart’s Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

Apple unveiled its first mixed reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, at its annual developer conference, along with new Mac models and upcoming software updates. We discuss all the most important announcements made by the company at WWDC 2023 on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Government Asks E-Commerce Firms to Create Framework Against Dark Patterns: Consumer Affairs Secretary

The government has taken a serious note of ‘dark patterns’ and asked e-commerce firms to create a self-regulatory framework to stop such practices, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Singh on Tuesday said.

The e-commerce sector has the largest contribution to dark patterns, and the framework will be created in the next two months, Singh told reporters here after a stakeholder meeting.

Dark patterns refer to practices which deliberately exploit the consumers on the internet, like adding items to a shopping cart even though a user has not opted for it, changing the price of a product at the time of checking out or even creating a false sense of urgency to advance a buying decision.

Singh, who was present in the over two and half hour meet here, said he has asked the e-commerce players like Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy and Zomato in association with the Advertising Standards Council of India and some law firms to create a self-regulatory framework to help curb such practices.

He said education and awareness are very essential as, many a time, the consumer and seller on a marketplace like an e-commerce platform are not aware of the modus operandi deployed by intermediaries to maximize sales or make a sale happen.

If such practices continue even after awareness and creation of a self-regulatory framework, the government may look at coming up with regulations on the matter, Singh said, adding that the statutes governing consumer protection are very wide right now and dark patterns do fall under unfair trade practices.

However, enforcement of the law by acting against errant brands may be counter-productive, and hence, efforts are being made to take a step-by-step approach at present.

Asci’s chief executive Manisha Kapoor said the ad industry’s self-regulatory body will be coming out with its guidelines on dark patterns very soon, but added that it is a wider subject concerning areas beyond advertising, like transactions, subscriptions etc.

“Many (e-commerce firms) say we are marketplaces and do not have full controls, but I think, we are going to push back on that,” she made it clear.

Singh also said that the government has made it clear to e-commerce firms like Amazon and Flipkart that the consumers’ trust in the brand gets them to shop on their platform, and hence, they cannot shy away from responsibility and will have to share some liability in case something goes wrong.

He, however, made a distinction between e-commerce players and the state-promoted ONDC (open network for digital commerce), saying the latter is a protocol, which has all the buyers, sellers and also marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart on it.

OnePlus recently launched its first tablet in India, the OnePlus Pad, which is only sold in a Halo Green colour option. With this tablet, OnePlus has stepped into a new territory that’s dominated by Apple’s iPad. We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Poco F5, Poco X5 Pro 5G, Poco X5 5G Discounted During Flipkart Big Saving Days Sale

Flipkart has kicked off its Flipkart Big Saving Days Sale in India for Plus members. The sale will be live for all users from June 10 and will go on till June 14. A slew of Poco smartphones will be available at discounted prices during the sale. The Xiaomi sub-brand’s high-end smartphones like Poco F5 and Poco X5 Pro 5G are available with cashback and discounts during the sale. Besides, Poco X5 5G, Poco M5, Poco C55, Poco C51 and Poco C50 are also getting price cuts. Further, the e-commerce website has partnered with different banks to offer an instant discount on purchases made using their cards.

As mentioned, during the Flipkart Big Saving Days Sale in India, Poco F5’s price starts at Rs. 26,999 (including bank offers). This marks a cut of Rs. 3,000 from the original launch price of the smartphone. Similarly, Poco X5 Pro 5G is listed with a starting price of Rs. 21,999 instead of the original price tag of Rs. 22,999. Interested users can avail of up to Rs. 1,000 discount for purchases made using HDFC, ICICI, and SBI bank cards.

The Poco X5 5G is listed with a starting price of Rs. 15,999 instead of Rs. 18,999. Further, there are bank discounts up to Rs. 1,000. The Poco M5 can be grabbed by paying a starting price of Rs. 8,999, down from the launch price of Rs. 12,499. It is listed with an additional Rs. 500 bank discount as well.

Meanwhile, the Poco C55 is receiving a discount of Rs. 1,750 and is listed for purchase with a starting price of Rs. 7,749 during the Flipkart Big Saving Days Sale. The entry-level smartphone was initially launched in the county for Rs. 9,499.

Finally, the Poco C51 and Poco C50 are available for Rs. 6,999 and Rs. 5,649 respectively. The Poco C51 has an original launch price tag of Rs. 8,499, while the Poco C50 was unveiled for Rs. 6,499.

Apart from bank discounts, customers can exchange their old smartphones to receive additional discounts while purchasing the aforementioned Poco handsets. To know more about the deals, head to the official Flipkart website.

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