Reliance Industries has acquired an 85% stake in NowFloats, an Indian startup that helps small businesses and individuals build an online presence, for ~$20M (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Reliance Industries has acquired an 85% stake in NowFloats, an Indian startup that helps small businesses and individuals build an online presence, for ~$20M  —  Reliance Industries, one of India's largest industrial houses, has acquired a majority stake in NowFloats, an Indian startup …

How the concept of free shipping forces small e-commerce businesses to eat the cost of shipping, as large sellers like Amazon do so at scale (Amanda Mull/The Atlantic)

Amanda Mull / The Atlantic:
How the concept of free shipping forces small e-commerce businesses to eat the cost of shipping, as large sellers like Amazon do so at scale  —  How retailers hide the costs of delivery—and why we're such suckers for their ploys  —  It was a pair of feather earrings that helped Ann Miceli get out from underneath strangers' cars.

Morgan Stanley estimates Amazon is delivering half of its US packages, will soon pass UPS and FedEx in total volume, at a current rate of 2.5B packages a year (Michael Sheetz/CNBC)

Michael Sheetz / CNBC:
Morgan Stanley estimates Amazon is delivering half of its US packages, will soon pass UPS and FedEx in total volume, at a current rate of 2.5B packages a year  —  - Amazon Logistics is the e-commerce giant's in-house logistics operation.  — “Our AlphaWise analysis shows …

SoftBank's China strategy wobbles as key bets disappoint

Investors and some bankers looking at China-related deals say SoftBank's involvement, once a sign of promising prospects, was now viewed as a red flag that a company was likely overvalued. https://ift.tt/38GTo2j https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

NSDL ends Aadhaar e-sign services

With NSDL no longer supporting e-sign, brokerages and fintechs will now have to physically onboard customers. https://ift.tt/34k4qXJ https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Data breach cost rises by 8% in 2 years

With cyberattacks becoming more sophisticated, the average cost of a malicious insider attack rose by 15% in 2019 from last year https://ift.tt/35vkBmB https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Food delivery firms feast on binge watching

Streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar driving sales in food delivery, ready-to-eat, packaged food segments https://ift.tt/2EirTOw https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

TikTok, Facebook and Instagram bring music to labels' ears

Music companies such as T-Series, Times Music & Saregama set to earn over Rs 100 crore this year as users put posts on these platforms with their music. https://ift.tt/2LTCXps https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Edtech firms see rising engagement on Tiktok

Companies like Gradeup, Toppr and Vedantu, which have struck strategic partnerships to create and share content, on the short video platform, claim seeing engagement levels that almost equal that of their Facebook and YouTube channels. https://ift.tt/34gmy4F https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Micromax sales, director's pay down to a fourth in four years

Revenue for FY19 fell about 45%, reflecting the continuous gains made by Chinese firms https://ift.tt/2PIxVNt https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

MeitY urges the Finance ministry to bring back 4% exports sops on smartphones

The ministry of electronics and IT has approached the Finance ministry to reinstate the export duty credit scrips under Merchandise Export Incentive Scheme (MEIS) in order to evade a massive job loss from the smartphone industry. https://ift.tt/34iWkOY https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Congressional panel chair asks Apple and Google if app devs are required to disclose any non-US ties, amid concerns of Chinese investment in apps like TikTok (Reuters)

Reuters:
Congressional panel chair asks Apple and Google if app devs are required to disclose any non-US ties, amid concerns of Chinese investment in apps like TikTok  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chair of a U.S. congressional panel wrote to Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google and to Apple (AAPL.O) …

Ping An's financial technology arm OneConnect closes flat on its first day of trading after raising $312M in its US IPO, which valued the company at $3.66B (Michael Hytha/Bloomberg)

Michael Hytha / Bloomberg:
Ping An's financial technology arm OneConnect closes flat on its first day of trading after raising $312M in its US IPO, which valued the company at $3.66B  —  - Shares close first day of trading at its $10 offer price  — Software company Bill.Com's performance tops week's U.S. IPOs

Godfall, a New Loot Slasher, Is Coming to PlayStation 5 and PC

The loot grind will continue in the next generation, as Gearbox Publishing announces Godfall, a third-person "loot slasher" from a fairly new studio. https://ift.tt/2RIlAf0

WhatsApp Won't Work on Millions of Devices From 2020

WhatsApp users on Windows Phones will be locked out forever after December 31, said Facebook. From February 1, 2020, any iPhone running iOS 8 or older will no longer be supported, along with any... https://ift.tt/2E9NZCy