1947 Tech 🇮🇳: 70
Once a week newsletter: Insights on Tech, markets, startups, venture capital, and foreign investments in India
1. TikTok starts monetising in India, brands line up
TikTok is taking India by storm.
Tik Tok is emerging as a popular advertising platform for a host of consumer brands, as the popular Chinese short video application returns to online play stores after a two-week ban was lifted by the courts in the last week of April.
The company claims it has 120 million users in India. TikTok recently embarked on monetizing its operations in India and premier brands such as Pepsi, Snapdeal, Myntra, Shaadi.com, Shopclues are lining up.
The study estimates that users in rural India use TikTok for an average of 106 minutes every day, whereas in urban India usage is for about 7.5 minutes. Engagement on TikTok is higher than Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Vidit Aatrey, founder of social commerce platform Meesho said Tiktok has good distribution in Tier 2 and 3 cities, while fashion portal Voonik is finding that its target audience of 18- 35-year-olds matches with the user base at TikTok
2. Voice hits the right chord for brands, sees 270% growth in online searches
Rajan Anandan of Surge Sequoia, previously Google India head coined the phrase — India is three Vs
Voice, video and vernacular.
Voice search seems to be going main-stream with consumers across categories fast adapting to this search tool for seeking information and discovering content. India has seen a whopping 270% growth year-on-year in voice searches, according to the Year in Search-India: Insights for Brands by Google.
The report reveals that searches in non-metros are growing faster than the metros across categories through their smart-phones, online videos, which are reshaping the way consumers gather information and make purchase decisions.
The growth of voice searches is driven by regional languages
The report says that 9 out of 10 new Internet users in India are likely to be Indian language users.
3. Year in Search — India: Insights for Brands by Google
Detailed insights for brands by google. What does google search say about the Indian consumer behavior online?
Top 5 country trends:
Bharat is going online — Searches in non-metros are growing faster than the metros across categories through smartphones
Video: An unprecedented growth story — Online video is reshaping the way consumers gather information and make purchase decisions
Indic languages and voice — Indian internet users are fast adopting this search tool and finding comfort in regional language
Omnichannel — Online and offline are coming together to fulfill customer
needs and helping businesses maximize their potentialAssisting businesses — AI and machine learning are assisting businesses to enhance customer experience and improve ROI
4. Why Tiger Global and other investors are eyeing Indian B2B startups in their hunt for the next billion-dollar bet
India’s business-to-business (B2B) startups have rarely been associated with the hysteria and excitement that typically surrounds billion-dollar valuations and large funding rounds — much unlike their more flamboyant business-to-consumer (B2C) counterparts. But that’s set to change.
In the hunt for the next billion-dollar bet, marquee investors like Tiger Global Management are already ramping up their investments in Indian B2B startups, signaling growing investor interest in enterprise startups.
That interest, investors say, is driven by the potential Indian B2B startups have to seize global market opportunities, as they create disruptive tech-based products and solutions for global businesses.
As of Tuesday, May 7, Indian B2B startups had already raised around $3.35 billion in 2019. That amounts to 95 percent of the total amount raised by B2B startups in 2018.
A week in review
