Product Spotlight E03: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)

Over the past months, we at Greyhound Research have received a ton of requests from our end-user clients to offer more product deep dives. Essentially, share insights that go beyond the usual 30,000 feet conversations and focus on products/suites that…

Product Spotlight E02: IBM z16

Over the past months, we at Greyhound Research have received a ton of requests from our end-user clients to offer more product deep-dives. Essentially, share insights that go beyond the usual 30,000 feet conversations and focus on products/suites that IT…

Buyer Spotlight E01: Bharat Gas, LPG Business Unit of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited

For us at Greyhound Research, IT Decision Makers are the most important stakeholders. For it's a set of stakeholders we work the most closely with. To put this in perspective, nearly 70% of our business comes from these stakeholders and…

ShareChat Parent Enters Into Strategic Partnership; Will Buy TakaTak In $700-million Deal

Social media platform ShareChat’s parent Mohalla Tech (which also operates Moj) has entered into a strategic partnership with Times Internet-owned short video app MX TakaTak, operated by MX Media. The plan is to build India’s largest short video platform —…

Police Looking Into App Targeting Muslim Women: Union IT Minister

Following outrage over a new app that puts out a list of Muslim women up for ‘auction’ along with their photographs, Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday said the government is working with the local police…

Services Spotlight E01: IBM Cloud Satellite

The past few quarters have been busy for us at Greyhound Research. At one end, our team of analysts and consultants have been working closely with some of the world's biggest companies and helping them with their digital transformation strategy.…

Industry Spotlight E01: IBM Customer Experience Solutions For Banking & Financial Markets

The past few quarters have been busy for us at Greyhound Research. At one end, our team of analysts and consultants have been working closely with some of the world's biggest companies and helping them with their digital transformation strategy.…

Product Spotlight E01: IBM Watson AIOps

Over the past months, we at Greyhound Research have received a ton of requests from our end-user clients to offer more product deep-dives. Essentially, share insights that go beyond the usual 30,000 feet conversations and focus on products/suites that IT…

Reliance Aims To Embed JioMart In WhatsApp

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail Ltd plans to embed its e-commerce app JioMart into WhatsApp within six months, allowing the 400 million users of India’s most popular messaging service order products without having to leave the app, two officials aware of the…

#CounterpunchWithSVG E10: IBM To Focus On The Contact Centre And This Time It’s About Data & AI. But Are The Clients Ready?

In the past month, I have spoken to over two dozen contact centre decision-makers on how they have managed the floor during #COVID19 times - all have stated the need to invest in more technology as key for operations hereon…

#CounterpunchWithSVG E09: Despite Its Battles, IBM Is Confident That Its India Business Will Thrive. Will It, Really?

#CounterpunchWithSVG crossed a significant milestone yesterday. In this year so far the series has garnered over 30,000 views from over 100 countries. More than anything else, I see this milestone as the best stamp of approval for this format and…

An American PE That Backed Alibaba And Airbnb Has Turned Bullish On India Amid The Pandemic

In a year that’ll be remembered in history for a devastating pandemic and an unprecedented economic slowdown, an American investor is flooding India with money. Experts believe having this giant in the roster will give Indian firms’ street cred globally. Silver Lake…

Can India’s Legacy Businesses Beat Amazon and Walmart?

From Flipkart versus Amazon to Uber versus Ola, and even Swiggy versus Zomato, India’s internet has so far been a battleground for young local startups and global tech giants—either fighting each other or among themselves.   “The investments from the…

Festival Season Sales: JioMart Set To Upset The Cart For Flipkart, Amazon

This year’s e-commerce festival season sale, to be kicked off by Flipkart with its flagship ‘The Big Billion Days’ sale on October 16, followed by Amazon with its ‘Great Indian Festival’ sale on October 17, is expected to be a…

Why The World Needs To Wake Up To India’s Jio

Billion-dollar investments, marquee shareholders, and a business built without any Chinese footprint, India’s 10-month old Jio Platforms appears to have all the right ingredients to become the next big global tech giant.   The biggest strength of Jio Platforms is…

Cloud Computing Is Betting On Outer Space

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#CounterpunchWithSVG E08: Oracle Believes Its Cloud Is Like No Other. But Is It, Really?

#CounterpunchWithSVG is now seven exchanges old and has been read more than 20,000 times from over 100 countries. I have had the pleasure of hosting some big names from the world of technology who have braved not only some straightforward…

Can MapMyIndia Beat Google To Be The Navigator Of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’?

They know how to pick their battles. When Google Maps made inroads into India after its launch in February 2005, MapMyIndia (MMI) owners Rakesh and Rashmi Verma had a choice: to concentrate on the enterprise segment or take on the tech…

Vodafone AGR Case Will Impact Connected Cars In India

The Vodafone case in the Supreme Court related to the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues will have some dramatic consequences for the Indian connected car market. Vodafone had indicated that the Supreme Court didn't grant a minimum time of 15 years…

TikTok’s Suitors: Among Microsoft, Walmart, Oracle, and Reliance, Who Makes The Best Match?

Just about a year back, when afaqs! did a cover story on TikTok, it seemed like the short video platform was nearing the end of its problems in India. It seemed like the major concern for the ByteDance-owned video juggernaut…

TikTok Deal With Oracle May Not Lead Easing Of Ban In India

The ‘technical partnership’ deal struck between US-based business software provider Oracle and ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, is unlikely to bring cheers to users of the mobile app in India as the Centre is reportedly in no mood…

The Big Race For TikTok In India: What’s In It For The Buyer?

In the US, TikTok might be on the last legs of negotiation to find itself an American buyer but the big race is on In India. While several names like Microsoft, Twitter,  Reliance Jio and now Oracle have come to…

Oracle Landing TikTok Means A Lot Of Things, But Definitely Not An Ad Network

Sunday night just got exciting, and how! Reports have confirmed that Oracle has won the bid for the U.S. operations of TikTok (a ByteDance company), leaving behind both Microsoft and Walmart from the race. It's being touted that this deal will not…

The Race To Build An Indian Social Network

Over the past three months, home-grown variants of short-video social networking apps have cruised through some unusual times. Border tensions and #BoycottChina campaigns had already resulted in a steady uptick in their user base. And then came the ban on 59…

Why Microsoft Closed Its Experiential Stores

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Engagement, User Experience Critical For Homegrown Apps To Succeed

The ban on 59 apps with Chinese links has opened up opportunities for homegrown players to accelerate growth but they will have to ensure good user experience and engagement on their platforms to be successful, according to industry analysts.  …

Ban On ‘Made-in-China’ Apps Gives India’s TikTok Rivals A Boost

India's decision to ban 59 'made-in-China' apps is proving a blessing to local software developers, especially alternatives to video-sharing social networking service TikTok, which until the ban had 200 million users in the country.   Some experts, however, see challenges…

Google-Reliance Partnership Heats Up Indian eCommerce Race

TOKYO -- Google's surprise decision announced on July 15 to invest $4.5 billion into Jio Platforms, the digital business arm of India's biggest family-owned conglomerate Reliance Industries, has so far not been accompanied by any announcement on Google's role in Reliance's…

Airtel Inks Strategic Alliance With Amazon Web Services To Tap SMB Opportunity

Bharti Airtel is set to sign a strategic alliance with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud services arm of retail giant Amazon, to tap small-and-medium businesses (SMBs). The pairing will be pitted against the Reliance Jio Infocomm-Microsoft combine as they compete for a share…

Reliance Likely To Acquire TikTok In India For $5 billion

India's most valuable company Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is reportedly the latest bidder for the Bytedance-owned TikTok in India. The Mukesh Ambani-led firm had begun talks last month with the Chinese firm to acquire its operations in India. The deal…