Video podcasts 🎙️
Digital gap, Agri-tech, and Amazon empowering SMEs.
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
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Let’s go ahead and get started:
Stock market summary:
US - S&P 500 up 0.17%
India - Sensex up 1.37%
EBAY unloads classified business unit 📰
Ebay is selling its classified ads business to Adiventa, a Norway based classified ads publisher in a deal valued at $9.2 Billion.
Ebay will get $2.5 Billion in cash and 540 Million of Adiventa shares, making them a 44% owner of Adiventa with a 33.3% voting stake. Adiventa is an accumulator of classifieds businesses across the world, owning brands such as Leboncoin, Brazil’s OLX, France’s biggest online classified ads website and several others across Europe, Americas and North Africa.
Classified ads is probably one of the oldest business models on the internet, but now social platforms and digital ads have largely displaced them. Slow growth and little strategic value to Ebay’s increasing focus on ecommerce prompted the company to divest. Read more.
Spotify bets on video podcasts 🎙️
Expanding on format innovation, Spotify will now allow podcast makers to distribute video versions of their podcasts on its platform, allowing listeners to seamlessly switch between the two formats.
With just one move the company took on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook in addition to turning the heat up on existing music streaming rivals. For creators obviously, this is a phenomenal opportunity to widen their audience and add depth to their content.
Spotify so far this year has been on the roll, expanding aggressively in the original content space, adding big name celebs in exclusive podcasts deals including Joe Rogan, The Obamas, Kim K. etc. Now there’s been consistent rumors of the company trying to poach YouTube creators as well into exclusive signings.
Takeaway: firstly, this is great news for the independent creator economy, no need for multiple platforms for simple work. As far as Spotify goes, with one move the company multiplied its addressable market manifold. Stock likely goes to the moon tomorrow.
Empowering local sellers 💪
Amazon’s total export from India based sellers has crossed $2 Billion, marking a consequential moment for the company as it ramps up domestic investments
The company had launched a “Global Selling” program 5 years ago with the intention to help third party sellers from India export products to global markets. 60,000 Indian sellers have benefited under the program so far.
The first $1B in sales took about 3 years, while the next billion took just 18 months. The phenomenal growth rate had been key in enticing Bezos to commit $1 Billion to further help digitize Indian SMEs. The goal now is to cross $10 Billion in sales by 2025.
Apparently the ecommerce giant has also tied up with Banks to simplify access to capital to SMEs.
Key takeaway: while Amazon sure has been throwing its weight around jostling domestic ecommerce players in India, the heated competitive environment has benefited local sellers. And when the small guys win, the economy wins. Read more.
Agritech startup seeded 🌱
VeGrow, an agritech startup operating a network of small farms, has raised $2.5 Million in a round led by Matrix Partners and Ankur Capital.
VeGrow aggregates farmers in its network and supplies them with information to increase yield, connects them with crop buyers, and offers logistics and supply chain services - simplifying the process around farming and opening up farmers to focus exclusively on their crop.
Currently the business is experimenting with a profit-sharing model and hopes to bring economies of scale using technology to independent farmers, maximizing their earning potential.
Takeaway: India’s agriculture is a $275 Billion annual industry and a key part of our heartland economy. Technology can play a large role in making it more efficient and the arena is wide open for new ventures. Read more.
Digital gap reality 📱
While we rapidly undergo a shift toward digital, some cracks and faults are starting to appear. An eye opening survey conducted by the National Statistical Office shows that just 4% of the rural households in India have access to“computers” as compared to 23% in urban areas.
Of the 1.13 lakh households that the survey included, 92.7% of the rural households and 87.2% of urban households have a primary school within 1 km. But just 38% of the rural household have access to secondary school within a kilometer as compared to 70% in the urban areas.
The report also highlighted that while 42% surveyed population in the urban cluster have internet access, just 15% of the surveyed students in the rural areas have access to the internet.
Why does this matter: imagine being a student in rural India in the midst of a pandemic right now. We mostly measure digital progress by how well connected with smartphones, but that may not offer the most accurate picture, especially in the COVID world. Critical functions including education, healthcare, banking, law and order are crying for better infrastructure. Read more.
Tweet of the day -
A short glimpse into the new world that we already live in.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🚚 From music to transportation - founders of Sound-cloud are launching an e-bike subscription startup. The startup is called Dance and the idea comes apparently as the world is making a shift to 2 wheelers in the ride-hailing segment, due to the pandemic.
😷 India’s battle continues - new virus cases rose 37,148 in the past 24 hours, pushing its tally past the 11.5 lakh mark while the total number of recoveries crossed 7.24 lakh. The death toll due to the disease rose to 28,084 with 587 fatalities reported yesterday.
🙌 Vodacom courts Alipay for superapp - Vodacom will rope in China’s Alipay to bring the latter’s tech prowess to build a superapp for South Africa where Vodacom network users will be able to make payments, shop, pay bills etc. within app.
🚖 GoJek appoints new CTO - the ride hailer appointed Severan Rault, who previously held leadership positions at Amazon and Microsoft as CTO taking reins over from Ajey Gore, who announced last month that he is leaving for personal reasons.
🙁 LinkedIn slashing staff - MSFT will cut about 960 jobs at LinkedIn, as the coronavirus pandemic is having an impact on demand for its recruitment products.
👏 Ferrying back citizens - Indian IT services firms are estimated to have brought back more than 2,000 employees and their families, stranded overseas on account of the Covid-19-induced travel bans.
✈️ Spicejet joins the ecommerce brigade - the airliner has acqui-hired the team and technology of Travenues, a subsidiary of online travel startup Ixigo that builds ecommerce products for airlines to deliver more products for its user base.
Hope you took a thing or two away from today’s edition. 😀
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