Paytm's story now a case study at Harvard

The journey of digital wallet Paytm from being a recharge platform to a payments bank is the topic of a case study published by India Research Centre (IRC) of Harvard Business School (HBS).

The study titled ‘Paytm: Building a Payments Network’ will be available for teaching purposes within and outside Harvard.

Established in 2006, Mumbai-based IRC supports its faculty with research in emerging trends in the region. IRC has supported most of the case studies and HBS research projects focused on business in South Asian region.

“Paytm is revolutionizing payments in India and it is a shining example of India’s digital future,” said Professor Sunil Gupta, one of the authors of the study and Edward W. Carter Professor of Business Administration and Chair of the General Management Program at HBS.

Professor Gupta and Professor Das Narayandas had also published a study on Flipkart’s decision to hive off its logistics unit Ekart as a separate company and the e-tailer’s move to a marketplace model in April 2016.

“We are on a mission to bring half a billion Indians to the mainstream economy and in turn build a business that India would be proud of. For us, the journey to enable fellow countrymen with digital payments and become a part of financial inclusion has only started right now. It is truly a privilege to have it become a part of the curriculum offered by the prestigious institute,” said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO of Paytm.

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Mastercard has set its eyes on India's growing e-commerce market

Identifying India as one of the "fastest" growing e-commerce nations, a leading global credit card company has said it will increase its investments in the country where it has already grown by 30% in the last two years.

"India is one of the top priorities in the region. We have increased our investments in India by over 30% in the last two years and we are going to increase it even more," Sam Ahmed, Mastercard's senior vice-president of marketing for Asia Pacific, told here.

Ahmed indicated that the company's investment plans were in line with the Indian government's "digital India" initiative and would help Indian consumers in digital payments in their daily lives.

He said the company was looking at a number of digital payment innovations which were to be launched in India in future including face recognition, Masterpass and other online payment methods.

He said mobile penetration in India was the highest and termed it as the key to get the user's access to such digital payment innovations.

Commenting on the flow of investments in India, Ahmed said the company was keen to support the digitisation move to help consumers understand about it.

The investments will also be channelised towards the digital and e-commerce engine giving consumers what they need. we are planning to do this by partnering with small businesses and merchants and outbound travellers, he said.

The company is eyeing to tap movie launches and sponsoring local sports as a part of its marketing campaigns.

"Movies are such a passion in India. The area we are looking at is movie launches," Ahmed said.

Currently, the company has veteran Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor and his daughter Sonam Kapoor as its Brand ambassadors.

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How Facebook profiles have come into play post Donald Trump's immigration order

The US border officials are checking the Facebook profiles of immigrants before allowing them into the country, a media report said.

The move came in the wake of US President Donald Trump's executive order to temporarily bar US entry to refugees and citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations.

The US officials are reportedly checking the Facebook pages of immigrants for their political views, The Independent reported on Sunday.

A Houston-based lawyer Mana Yegani was quoted as saying that several green card holders, who have the right to live and work in the US, were detained by border agents at American airports hours after Trump's executive order came into force.

According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (Alia), border agents were checking the social media accounts of those detained and were interrogating them about their political beliefs before allowing them into the US.

"I and my fellow lawyers had worked through the night fielding calls from people with legitimate visa being detained before entering the US or ordered back on flights to the Muslim-majority countries on the list," said Yegani, who works with the Alia.

"The ban has affected travellers with passports from seven Muslim majority countries and also green card holders who are granted authorisation to live and work in the US," a spokeswoman from Department of Homeland Security said.

The ban on Saturday created chaos and outrage around the world, while numerous travellers found their access to the US territory blocked and protests were staged at several US airports.

"In one alleged incident a Sudanese PhD student at Stanford University in California, who has lived in the US for 22 years, was held for five hours in New York and in another a dual Iranian-Canadian citizen was not allowed to board a flight in Ottawa," the report noted.

"These are people that are coming in legally. They have jobs here and they have vehicles here. Just because Trump signed something at 6 p.m. yesterday (on Friday), things are coming to a crashing halt. It's scary," Yegani said.

The executive order bans immigration from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen under measures to "keep radical Islamic terrorists out".

"I am establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the US," Trump said on Friday during the signing at the Pentagon after the swearing-in of Defence Secretary James Mattis, CNN reported.

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Facebook launches security key to check data breach

To minimise data breach, Facebook has added a new login option with 'security keys' that requires a user to enter a special security code from their phone in addition to the password when they login from a new browser.

According to a Facebook blog post, though most people get security code for login approvals from a text message (SMS) or by Facebook app to generate the code directly on their phones, SMS is not always reliable and having a phone backup may not work well for them.

"You can register a physical security key to your account so that the next time you login after enabling login approvals, you will simply tap a small hardware device that goes in the USB drive of your computer," said Brad Hill, security engineer at Facebook.

Security keys can be purchased through companies like Yubico, a key manufacturing firm, and the keys support the open Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) -- an authentication technology initially developed by Google -- standard hosted by the 'Fast IDentity Online' (FIDO) Alliance.

FIDO Alliance is a group of big corporations that collaborate on ways to make sign-ins safer and easier online.

According to a report in Fortune, "a security key ensures that only the person in possession of it (and password) can access accounts so protected," the report noted.

Users can set up a security key to protect their account by buying one online at an e-commerce shop and then go to the Facebook 'settings'.

Click on 'security', where they can see an option for 'security keys'.

Simply select 'add key' and the account is secured. To add a security key from computer, users need to use the latest versions of Chrome or Opera browser.

However, security keys have their own limitations currently.

It requires users to plug the device into a laptop or desktop through a USB port and sign on from a Chrome or Opera web browser.

Mobile users need buy a key that supports near-field communication, a wireless tech that involves radio waves.

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Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates will be the world's first trillionaire, claims study

Microsoft founder Bill Gates will be world's first trillionaire in the next 25 years, according to a new research.

According to research firm Oxfam International, the world would get its first trillionaire in the next 25 years, when Bill Gates becomes around 86 years old.

A report by Oxfam International said that considering that Bill Gates' fortune is growing at 11% per year since 2009, he could become the world's first trillionaire soon.

When Gates left Microsoft in 2006, his net worth was $50 billion, according to Oxfam. By 2016, his wealth had increased to $75 billion, "despite his commendable attempts to give it away through his Foundation," the report said.

In addition to the charitable work Gates does through his personal foundation, he is one of the founding members of The Giving Pledge, a commitment from some of the richest individuals in the world to give away more than half of their worth. 

For the hypothetical analysis, Oxfam researchers applied the rate of growth he has been enjoying, 11% per year since 2009, to Gates' current levels of wealth (over $84 billion, according to Forbes).

"In such an environment, if you are already rich, you have to try hard not to keep getting a lot richer," Oxfam noted.

Another report by Oxfam had found that eight billionaires, including Bill Gates, from around the globe have as much money as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world's population.

As per the report, the eight billionaires, according to the Forbes billionaires list published in March 2016, include Warren Buffett, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Inditex founder Amancio Ortega, Carlos Slim, Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Oracle's Larry Ellison.

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Google Pixel sales have been low due to high price and tough competition

Pixels are not adding up to make a perfect picture for global technology giant Google. Certainly not in India, the world’s fastest growing and second largest mobile phone market after China.

Google’s Pixel smartphone was launched in India with an advertising blitz in October 2016. And given its super premium positioning, November 2016’s demonetisation wasn’t an inhibiting factor. But sales have been tepid at best, say retailers and analysts.

Comparisons with the failure of Google’s low-end smartphone project, Android One, are beginning to be made.

Retailers and industry insiders say Pixel sales have not taken off mainly thanks to very high prices – Rs 57,000 upwards – and the greater brand pull of Apple’s iPhones and Samsung Galaxy variants in the super premium category.

Sales data are not shared by Google or retailers. But shipments are an indication. Google has shipped around 30,000 Pixel phone units during the initial launch period and around 10,000 more subsequently, industry insiders said.

They added that Apple and Samsung shipments over the same period came to lakhs of units. Analysts said Pixel had captured the No. 3 spot, behind Apple and Samsung, in the first two months after launch, in the Rs 40,000-plus category, getting a 5% share. But since then Pixel has lost substantial ground, they told EToff the record.

But a Google spokesperson said Pixel sales were as per the company’s expectations. “Over the last few months, we have received very positive feedback from consumers. Excitement continues to be high for the Google Assistant, camera and the overall speed and responsiveness of Pixel phones, and sales have been in line with our expectations,” the spokesperson said, in response to queries from ET .

Pixel is lagging globally too. The smartphone has sold around 2.5 million units since its October 2016 launch, Counterpoint Research says. Analysts say Apple would have sold over 70 million phones while Samsung’s numbers would be over 80 million in the October-December period despite the latter’s trouble with flagship Galaxy Note 7, several units of which exploded or caught fire. Apple and Samsung are yet to report the numbers for the period.

“Because Google was coming for the first time on its own, there was a hype initially, but there hasn’t been happening much since. Sales have not been good,” said Subhash Chandra, managing director of Bengaluru-based Sangeetha Mobiles.

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Facebook looking for ways to crack down on fake news

To mitigate the impact of fake news and curb its spread, Facebook is considering to notify users if they ended up sharing or reading a fake story. According to a report in TechCrunch on Friday, Facebook may let people know retroactively about a fake story.

"You want to make sure as little comes in the system as possible and when it happens, you need to react as quickly as you can. And if you didn't find it until later then you need to consider letting people know. The question is who and how. I don't know if we'll do that but it's certainly something we're considering," Adam Mosseri, Facebook Vice-President of News Feed was quoted as saying.

Mosseri was speaking on Friday on a panel, 'Separating fact from fantasy: Is fake news undermining the truth?' at the University of California Berkeley, the report said.

Ever since the results of US Presidential elections were declared, Facebook was accused of spreading and promoting fake news that favoured the win of US President Donald Trump.

Though the company has taken number of measures to prevent fake news from spreading, there are still concerns being raised.

"Fake news was a thing on Facebook before the election, and something Facebook had been working to address for a couple of years. The main difference has been the public outcry in the wake of the election," Mosseri further noted.

"The amount of fake news on the platform, actually - and I'm not trying to diminish the importance of the issue - is relatively small. It's a very small percentage of what people see. It should be smaller. It should get as close to zero as possible," he added.

Mosseri said that they needed to reduce the distribution that fake news publishers get as close as they could to zero.

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