1947 Tech — Week 45
Once a week newsletter: Insights on Tech, markets, startups, venture capital, and foreign investments in India
1. More pay more jobs: The Hidden Benefits of Uber
In developed nations, the so-called gig economy has become a controversial and polarizing topic
However, in poorer nations, there is less controversy — largely because the benefits for the workers, and countries, are so much more obvious.
Take India for example, a country with an average annual per capita income of $1,670, barely 3 percent of the $56,850 per capita income of the United States. Uber says its drivers in India can expect to make anywhere between $5,000 and $12,000 a year — a range that falls in the top 10 percent of earners nationally.
Since arriving in India in 2013, Uber has created some 350,000 driver jobs. Ola, a local rival, now counts more than a million drivers in its workforce. (By comparison, the government-run Indian Railways — in operation since 1853 — employs 1.3 million people.)
2. High employee churn rate: Chinese tech companies are facing an unlikely problem in India
Chinese phones dominate India. But when it comes to retaining talent, these cos have a different story to tell
In July, ET Magazine met the India team of Meitu, the tech company behind popular apps such as BeautyPlus. The team that started its India operations with 10 people in 2016 had reduced to three key people by this time. The country head had left in mid-2017 and no replacement has been found.
There are similar stories of high attrition at companies such as Cheetah Mobile, WeChat, Alibaba and a few of its subsidiaries. The churn at the senior level has disbanded entire teams in cases like Cheetah Mobile and reduced team size to half in cases like WeChat, Alibaba, and UCWeb.
The common reasons for high employee churn rate among Chinese companies
Lack of trust among India hires
Lack of communication
Aggressive hiring & firing
Lack of a feel for local market
3. Going cashless: Bharat going digital for payments
More Indians from smaller towns and cities are paying digitally for goods and services, raising expectations of sustained growth for non-cash payments, even as Reserve Bank data indicates the sharp spike in transactions following the 2016 note ban has evened out this year.
Payments company executives estimate that card transactions in towns with populations of up to 1 million have doubled in the two years since demonetisation.
“Across cities like Udaipur, Aligarh and Hubli, merchants are open to adopting QR code for payments and they are platform-agnostic,” said Amrish Rau, CEO of PayU India. “This was never the case in my two decades of experience in the payments industry.”
Immediately after demonetization was announced on November 8, 2016, there was a spurt in digital payments.
4. Will focus on 4 areas to ensure further improvement in India’s ease of doing biz ranking: DIPP Secy
The government will focus on four major areas, including registering properties, insolvency resolution and paying tax next year to ensure further improvement in India’s ease of doing business ranking.
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said reform measures taken by the government has helped improve the country’s rank significantly but there is a need to work more on these areas.
According to the World bank’s doing business report 2019 based on 10 parameters, India climbed 23 points to 77th place.
A week in review
