Paytm achieves another milestone

The popular mobile payment and e-commerce platform Paytm has announced that it is now 200 million wallets strong. The company is the biggest success story of demonetisation announced by Prime minister Narendra Modi in November 2016. Within hours of the PM announcing the banning of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, Paytm user base jumped almost 150%. For weeks after that, the company's app ruled both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma tweeted the news of the company crossing the 200 million wallets milestone. Sharma also thanked Paytm users for the feat and said that he hopes that the company crosses 500 million-mark by the year 2020.

He also said in his tweet that the company is adding 7 lakh users per day and that the total balance in the wallets stood at Rs 899 crore.

The company also said in a press release that Paytm has become a preferred method of payment for use-cases ranging from mobile and DTH recharges to electricity and water bill payments as well as offline payments at grocery stores, pharmacies and parking among others.

"At Paytm, our goal is to help merchants and consumers transact digitally at zero extra cost. Reaching 200 Mn registered users and more than half a million users on a daily basis is a great showcase of the country's trust in our payment solution and reaffirms our belief in the need for a quick and easy cashless payment method. Going forward, we would continue to drive strong consumer-focused innovation in the category to reach the widest set of merchants and consumers in India," Deepak Abbot, senior vice president said.

Here’s why Facebook needs to thank Reliance Jio

Reliance Jio's free data offer and subsequent moves by competitors to reduce data charges look to have had a dramatic impact on Facebook usage in India. The impact was so much that it took Facebook's global monthly active user (MAU) numbers to record highs.

In its December-quarter earnings call with investors on Wednesday, the social media giant said the quarter was a "fantastic" one for the "overall growth of the Facebook community." The quarter witnessed Facebook's "strongest absolute MAU and DAU (daily active user) additions year-over-year since being a public company", CFO David Wehner said.

In response to a question on where the increases came from, Wehner singled out India and said "India was our strongest growth market." He indicated much of that increase came on account of "third party promotional free data plans."

Asia saw a sequential growth in Facebook MAUs of more than 44 million in the quarter, said to be the biggest increase ever.

Wehner added that Facebook Lite for Android has also helped the social networking major to expand its usage and reach in emerging economies including India. Facebook Lite is a light app that allows for faster downloads on cheaper Android phones.

Facebook has its largest user base in India with around 195 million accounts, according to Statista, a data collecting platform. The US comes second with 191 million users. Other emerging economies like Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico follow.

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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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Reliance Jio's free services face big threat from Airtel

Bharti Airtel has urged the telecom tribunal to quash the telecom regulator's order that found Reliance Jio Infocomm's free voice and data offer to be in compliance with rules on predatory pricing, becoming the second telco after Vodafone to drag the sectoral watchdog to court on issues related to the Mukesh Ambani-owned carrier.

India's largest telco has also urged the Telecom Disputes and Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to direct the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to follow its own rules and pull up Jio for alleged violation of the regulator's order that a promotional offer can't last beyond 90 days.

Pending the final decision, Airtel has urged TDSAT to pass an interim order asking Trai to ensure that telcos comply with its rules that set the interconnect charge - currently at 14 paise a minute - as the floor for retail tariffs. Besides, it has also sought a direction to the regulator to ensure that no telco offers any promotional offer beyond the allowed maximum 90 days.

Trai on its part said that it was currently studying Jio's new promotional tariff offer - Happy New Year - and would need 10 more days to examine and respond to the court.

Meanwhile, people familiar with the matter said that Jio requested the TDSAT bench to be impleaded as a party to the case.

The tribunal has directed Jio to file an application for the same, while the new telco is expected to do in the next three-four days. The TDSAT has set the next date of hearing for the matter on January 6.

Airtel's move to take Trai to TDSAT comes a few days after Vodafone India dragged the regulator to the Delhi High Court by challenging Trai's recommendation to levy a Rs 1,050 crore penalty on the telco for allegedly violating rules by not providing adequate points of interconnection to Jio, which had caused huge call failures on the new entrant's network.

Since its commercial launch on September 5, Jio has been offering a free voice and data offer till December 31 under the 'Welcome Offer' which was for users subscribing to Jio's network till December 3. It has since launched another promotional offer - Happy New Year - for users who subscribe to Jio's services till March 3. Those on the Welcome Offer will automatically get transferred to the Happy New Year plan.

Airtel has accused the Trai of being a 'mute spectator' watching its own telecom order and directions being violated by Jio in offering promotional offers beyond the 90-day period allowed by the regulator, "thus admittedly perpetuating illegality," according to the petition.

Airtel claims the Welcome Offer is in violation of the telcom regulator's own communication/order to various telecom operators on October 20, which clearly said that Jio would be allowed to continue offering the promotional tariff offer of free voice and data services only till December 3, which was the end of the 90-day tenure which any operator can avail to give a promotional offer.

"Thus, despite its (Trai's) own avowed position that the offer of "free services" after December 3, 2016 is non-compliant, the TRAI has been acting like a "mute spectator" to the continued violations," Airtel has contended in its petition with the TDSAT.

Explaining how Jio's new offer was in violation of the regulator's order, Airtel has said, " RJIL has been offering its free services for about 12 months to all customers under the guise of various names i.e beta launch, preview offer, welcome plan and now Happy New Year Plan. These free tariffs plans for such long duration are actually equivalent to the regular tariff plans and are nothing less than predatory".

It has further contended that Jio's tariff plan also violated orders of Trai on 'predatory and non-IUC compliant' pricing.

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TRAI asks Jio why extension of offer

TRAI asks Jio why extension of offer is not violation of rules

Telecom regulator TRAI has asked Reliance Jio to explain why extension of its free voice and data plan should not be seen as violation of existing regulations requiring promotional offers to be limited to 90 days.

TRAI shot off the letter after the Mukesh Ambani-led firm announced free data and voice calls for existing and new customers under the 'Happy New Year offer', days before the 90-day inaugural welcome plan ended on December 3.

In the December 20 letter, the regulator, which is in the process of examining the new plan by Reliance Jio, also asked why the offer of free data under the promotional scheme should not be treated as "predatory".

When contacted, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) did not offer any comments on the issue.

Sources with direct knowledge of the development said the regulator in its letter had cited RJIL's consumer base growing to 63 million as on December 18 to state that the company will become a significant market player in the broadband space shortly, may be by December-end.

Stating that the preliminary analysis relies on factors like average subscriber additions per day and free data being offered, TRAI is learnt to have asked RJIL to clarify as to "why the offer of free data under the promotional offer should not be treated as predatory."

Another source said that in a meeting with TRAI, Jio has said that the latest Happy New Year offer is substantiatively different from the Jio Welcome Offer (that commenced on September 5) as in the initial offer it had provided 4GB of free data per day, and in the new offer the same was capped at 1GB under Fair Usage Policy.

Also, they contend, in the first offer there was no option of renewal or payment after the 4GB limit was exhausted, but in the new offer, one can recharge both data and the promised speed.

In terms of market dominance, Reliance Jio is six per cent of the installations in the country whereas the Competition Commission of India (CCI) norms specify 30 per cent threshold to trigger the 'misuse of market dominance' clause.

Sources said, TRAI has also asked Jio to give an estimated month-wise projection of the number of subscribers that are expected to be added till March 31, 2017.