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By 2021, digital transformation will add an estimated US$154 billion to India’s GDP, and increase the growth rate by 1.0% annually, according to a new business study Unlocking the Economic Impact of Digital Transformation in Asia Pacific. The research was produced by Microsoft in partnership with IDC Asia/Pacific.

Image Source – Digital Transformation

The study predicts a dramatic acceleration in the pace of digital transformation across India and Asia Pacific’s economies. In 2017, about 4% of India’s GDP was derived from digital products and services created directly through the use of digital technologies, such as mobility, cloud, Internet of Things [IoT], and artificial intelligence [AI].

Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, said

India is clearly on the digital transformation fast track. Within the next four years, it is estimated that nearly 60% of India’s GDP will have a strong connection to the digital transformation trends. Organizations are increasingly deploying emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, and that will accelerate digital transformation led growth even further.

The survey conducted with 1,560 business decision makers in mid and large-sized organizations across 15 economies in the region highlights the rapid impact and widespread disruption that digital transformation is having on traditional business models. The study identified five key benefits from digital transformation.

According to the research findings, organizations are seeing significant and tangible improvements from their digital transformation efforts across these benefits in the range of 11% to 14% today. Business leaders expect to see more than 40% improvements in those key areas by 2020, with the biggest jump expected in productivity, customer advocacy as well as profit margin.

Digital Leaders in India to Gain Lion’s Share of Economic Opportunities

The study indicates that while 90% of organizations in India are in the midst of their digital transformation journey, only 7% in the entire region can be classified as Leaders. These are organizations that have full or progressing digital transformation strategies, with at least a third of their revenue derived from digital products and services. In addition, these companies are seeing between 20 – 30% improvements in benefits across various business areas from their initiatives.

The study indicates that Leaders experience double the benefits of Followers, and these improvements will be more pronounced by 2020. Almost half of Leaders [48%] have a full digital transformation strategy in place.

Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd., one of India’s Leaders in Digital Transformation, said

Apollo Hospitals recognized the potential of technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics in providing high quality preventive healthcare services, very early on. With data being generated at an exponential proportion, technology is helping us derive insights to predict and suggest preventive steps with utmost accuracy. Our partnership with Microsoft bring us to the forefront of this remarkable metamorphosis that is allowing us to meet healthcare demand and maintain service excellence regardless of geography.

The Study identified key differences between Leaders and Followers, which contribute to the improvements tracked:

  • Leaders are more concerned about competitors and emergence of disruptive technologies – The digital economy has also given rise to new types of competitors, as well as emerging technologies such as AI that have contributed to the disruption of business models.
  • Business agility and culture of innovation are key goals – When addressing business concerns, Leaders are focused on creating a culture of agility and innovation to counter competition. Followers, on the other hand, are more focused on improving employee productivity and profitability.
  • Measuring digital transformation successes – Organizations across Asia Pacific are starting to adopt new Key Performance Indicators [KPI] to better measure their digital transformation initiatives, such as effectiveness of processes, data as a capital, and customer advocacy in the form of Net Promoter Score [NPS]. As organizations realize the potential of data as the new oil for the digital economy, Leaders are much more focused on leveraging data to grow revenue and productivity, and to transform business models.
  • Leaders are more aware of challenges in their digital transformation journeys – In addition to skills and cyber-security threats as key challenges, Leaders have also identified the need to bolster their data capabilities through the use of advanced analytics to develop actionable insights in fast-moving markets.
  • Leaders are looking to invest in AI and Internet of Things – Emerging technologies such as AI [including cognitive services and robotics] and IoT are areas where Leaders are investing in for 2018. Besides these emerging technologies, Leaders are also more interested in investing in big data analytics to mine data for actionable insights than others.
  • What sets Leaders apart from others are their ability to ride on the digital transformation wave from an organizational culture perspective. The study found that Leaders have these traits

Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D), said

There is a pressing need for organizations to fully capitalize on the potential value of digital transformation in the next few years. To do so, organizations need to invest in building their ecosystem, from employees, to customers, to partners, across their value chain by gaining new insights through new data sources, and incorporating digitization in their products and services.

Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help organizations in India to succeed in their digital transformation journeys today through our agile platforms and solutions that prioritize flexibility, integration and trust. We understand what organizations will need to make their journeys a successful one.

Riding the Wave of Digital Transformation

Organizations in Asia Pacific need to accelerate their digital transformation journey to reap the full benefits of their initiatives, and to address the invisible revolution brought about the mass adoption of AI. More importantly, companies need to focus on capitalizing their own data in order to gain new market insights, create new digital products and services, and monetize data through data sharing securely, and in collaboration with its ecosystem.

Daniel-Zoe Jimenez, Research Director Digital Transformation Practice Lead, IDC Asia/Pacific, said

The pace of digital transformation is accelerating, and IDC expects that by 2021, at least 60% of India’s GDP will be derived from digital products and services, with growth in every industry driven by digitally enhanced offerings, operations and relationships. The study shows Leaders seeing double the benefits of Followers, with improvements in productivity, cost reductions, and customer advocacy. To remain competitive, organizations must establish new metrics, realign organization structures, and re-architect their technology platform.

Microsoft recommends organizations to adopt the following strategies to become a digital transformation Leader

  1. Create a digital culture – An organization need to build a culture of collaboration where it is connected across business functions, and has a vibrant and mature ecosystem of customers and partners. Data can then be embraced across organization and functions, where better decisions can be made and ultimately serving the needs of customers and partners better.
  2. Build an information ecosystem – In a digital world, organizations are capture more volumes of data internally and externally. The key to becoming a Leader is for organizations to be able to convert data into capital assets, and enable data sharing and collaboration internally and externally in an open yet trusted manner. In addition, a proper data strategy will allow businesses to start their AI initiatives to identify connections, insights and trends.
  3. Embrace micro-revolutions – In most cases, digital transformation efforts do not start with widespread change, but a series of micro-revolutions. These are small, quick projects that deliver positive business outcomes and accrue to a bigger and bolder digital transformation initiatives.
  4. Develop Future Ready Skills for Individuals and Organizations – Organizations today must re-look at training and re-skilling its workforce so that workers are equipped with future ready skill sets such as complex problem solving, critical thinking and creativity for the digital economy. More importantly, they need to re-balance the workforce to attain and attract key digital talents, as well as be open in creating a flexible work source model where they tap into skills-based marketplace. From a digital skills perspective,LinkedIn’s latest study outlines the ABCs of digital talents required for future economies in the region – artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing. In India, the top in-demand skills are big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing.

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Reliance Jio and Sodexo, the leader in Employee Benefits announced the partnership to accelerate India’s digital transformation. Jio and Sodexo will leverage complementary strengths and offerings to create an enriched digital life ecosystem for Indians.

JioMoney, the PPI wallet offered by Jio Payments Bank Ltd., has enabled integration of Sodexo Meal Cards with a user’s JioMoney account to allow mobile-based payments via Sodexo Meal Card. The partnership will enable thousands of Sodexo Merchants like grocery shops, kiranas, restaurants and cafes across the country, to accept digital payments via Sodexo.

Sodexo’s proprietary meal benefit solution, Sodexo Meal Pass can be linked to the JioMoney App for making quick payments on-the-go. It will also be an added digital transaction option for JioMoney’s rapidly growing user-base across India. Consumers no longer have to carry the Sodexo’s physical card for the purchase of food and non-alcoholic beverages. They can simply add the Sodexo Meal Card balance to the JioMoney app and start transacting on-the-go. Jio and Sodexo will continue to work together to accelerate adoption of services offered by both the brands.

Speaking on the association, Anirban S Mukherjee, Business Head, JioMoney said

Jio’s partnership with Sodexo will further Jio’s endeavour to deliver the benefits of evolving digital technologies to every Indian and allow them to live Digital Life to the fullest. The integration will bring convenience and new digital transaction options for both JioMoney and Sodexo users in India. Going forward both brands will leverage core strengths, develop synergies and expand their reach and presence in India’s growing digital ecosystem.

Stephane Michelin, CEO Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services India said

At Sodexo, we constantly strive to enhance the consumer experience by expanding the ways to use the Sodexo Meal card within our proprietary network. Our endeavour has been to improve the retail experience for our 3 million daily users. With this partnership, JioMoney’s MPOS system will help segregate the food & non – food items among standalone, smaller merchants, which will further strengthen Sodexo’s position as a compliant meal benefit solution in the country.

The solution has already been launched in Mumbai and the consumer response has been excellent. The JioMoney solution will be enabled at all Sodexo accepting merchants nationally over a period of time. This partnership between JioMoney and Sodexo, both being leaders in their respective spaces brings high levels of domain expertise will bring about a radical change in the payments landscape across the country.

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BookMyShow, India’s largest online entertainment ticketing brand, has joined hands with India’s largest Indie distributor PVR Pictures for Vkaao, a web-platform that enables individuals to choose the films that play in their local cinemas. As part of this association, India’s leading entertainment brands have come together to bring curated content by empowering the fans and movie goers to choose films, screening time, and theatre locations at any PVR Cinema across the country.

While PVR Pictures will continue to focus on making available a variety of films across genres and languages, BookMyShow will leverage its advanced analytical capabilities to identify the right set of viewers and curate screenings backed by its decade long intelligence and incisive understanding of movie goers.

Since its inception in January 2017, Vkaao has screened hundreds of shows, including exclusive paid previews. Vkaao currently has a library of over 400 studio and independent titles and plans to grow this collection manifold over the next 12 months. Vkaao has emerged as an alternate distribution platform for Indie film makers becoming a direct link between them and the cinemas. With this strategic tie up, Vkaao will have the capability to be the turnkey theatrical distribution arm for film makers, providing promotional services, campaign strategy, advertising & theatre booking services. Vkaao will continue to provide its standard Theatre On Demand model for films not positioned for traditional theatrical release.

Marzdi Kalianiwala, VP-Marketing & Business Intelligence, BookMyShow said

Our partnership with PVR Pictures only strengthens the existing successful movie viewing experiences we together provide our customers and now, we are excited to play a significant role in elevating the on-demand movie going experience with Vkaao. Over the last decade, BookMyShow has redefined the access to movies for millions of its users and through Vkaao, we are excited to bring them a curated selection of niche and exclusive films. This will be coupled with Vkaao’s cinematic experience that is highly personalised, and driven by people themselves, empowering them to share it with others with similar interests. Our analytical capabilities will definitely be able to bring together a new generation of cinema lovers and create a community that shares love for such films.

Deepak Sharma, COO – PVR Pictures said

Our successful association with BookMyShow spans decades and we are really excited to work with them on Vkaao.  As we continue to grow the Vkaao collection of films, our mission is to enable audiences to share an endless selection of films with friends, families and local communities, and to provide for a rich and engaging experience at PVR Cinemas. This new collaboration will help create a more seamless relationship between the theatrical and the digital experience. As part of this association, Vkaao, which is currently run as an independent platform will soon be integrated with PVR’s native digital platforms and BookMyShow.

About Vkaao

A fresh, disruptive medium of movie-going, Vkaao is a platform which gives viewers complete control of their movie watching experience at theatres. It allows them to select their preferred movie along with the location, date, and time of the screening at any theatre of their choice. This novel approach to movie going is why Vkaao is being considered as an exciting alternative to the conventional way of watching movies at the theatres. Vkaao’s USP lies in its focus on leveraging state-of-the-art technology in order to create a social, crowd-sourced movie going experience. For more information, please visit Vkaao

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Over the past few years, technology has taken over every aspect of life. Everything around us has already gone or is going digital. Hence it was prudent that even the humble TV had to undergo digitization. Star India pioneered the digitization of TV in India with the launch of Hotstar.

Digitization has changed the face of TV entirely and revolutionized the way we consume content.

Why has digital TV become a hit?

The utility and convenience of digital content have made it an integral part of everybody’s life. People have embraced the digitization of the Indian TV industry as it offers numerous benefits. With this anytime anywhere TV, you will never miss a show. To add to that, you can access to all your favorite shows in one place. Since Indian audiences are heavy consumers of TV content, Digitization of TV was a dream come true. Now, you can watch your favourite shows as per your convenience without compromising on other plans. A number of people prefer watching digital content while commuting. This gives them more time for other activities and also serves as a great on-the-go entertainment.

Launch of Hotstar

The digitization of Star TV rocked the digital TV industry. Star India launched its unique video streaming platform, Hotstar, in February 2015, which soon became a sensation. The app with its unique content, supreme quality, multiple features, and user-friendly interface had the audiences glued to the screens in no time. The Star digital revolution unwrapped new avenues for the digitization of the TV industry.

How did Hotstar trigger the digital revolution?

Even since its launch, Hotstar has been breaking records. Hotstar was introduced at a time when Internet speed in India was very slow. Which is why it was developed in such a way that it streamed videos seamlessly even at a low speed of 50 kbps. Its launch was timed perfectly, which was just before the start of the ICC World Cup 2015.

Within just a week of its launch, Hotstar got 1.5 million downloads and topped the list of free apps on Google PlayStore. This was a remarkable feat as it took Facebook 10 months, Twitter 12 months, and Instagram 2.5 months to reach the level of one million downloads.

The success story of Hotstar did not stop here. In another 33 days, the app downloads reached 10 million. In 18 months, the download crossed 72 million; while Netflix took nine years to reach 75 million. In January 2017, it was found that Hotstar app downloads had crossed the mark of 175 million.

The astounding figures clearly portray the onset of the digital era of Indian TV, and how it was transformed with the entry of Star India’s Hotstar. Clearly, Star India was instrumental in paving the way for digitization in India. It intensified the competition in the market and compelled aggregators to perform better. The rising value also enabled new entrants to take an interest in the market, thus pushing the message of Digital India.

To know more about how Star India led Indian television into the digital era, click here

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Visa, the global leader in digital payments technology, announced an independent study, conducted by Roubini ThoughtLab and commissioned by Visa, examining the economic impact of increasing the use of digital payments in major cities around the world, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai could help these cities realize, USD 7.2 billion annual net benefits.

Image Source – Digital Payments

The study estimates that relying more on electronic payments, such as cards and mobile payments, could yield a net benefit of up to US$D 470 billion per year across the 100 cities studied ~ roughly the equivalent to 3% of the average GDP for these cities. For instance

  • Mumbai, with a population of 19,547,000 and GDP 0f US$104.1bn, could gain USD 2.9 billion annual net benefits. Estimated catalytic impacts for the city over the next 15 years include 4.4 basis point increase in GDP growth rate and 1.3% increase in employment.
  • Delhi, with a population of 17,266,000 and GDP of USD 74.4bn, could gain annual net benefits of USD 2.2 billion. Estimated catalytic impacts for the city over the next 15 years reflect 8.4 basis point increase in GDP growth rate and 1.5% increase in employment.
  • Bangalore, which has a population of 9,394,000 and GDP of USD 44.7bn, could realize USD 1.3 billion annual net benefits experienced by consumers, businesses and governments in the city. Estimated catalytic impacts for the city over the next 15 years translate into 7.7 basis point increase in GDP growth rate and 1.4% increase in employment.
  • Chennai, with a population of 959,4000 and GDP of USD 30.9bn, could save an estimated annual net benefit of US$0.8 billion through the cashless transition in the city. Estimated catalytic impacts for the city over the next 15 years include 9.8 basis point increase in GDP growth rate and 1.7% increase in employment.

Cashless Cities: Realizing the Benefits of Digital Payments, is a unique study that quantifies the potential net benefits experienced by cities which move to an ‘achievable level of cashlessness’ – defined as the entire population of a city moving to digital payment usage equal to the top 10% of users in that city today.  The study does not look at eliminating cash. Rather, it seeks to quantify the potential benefits and costs of significantly increasing the use of digital payments.

By reducing reliance on cash, the study estimates the immediate and long-term benefits for three main groups—consumers, businesses and governments. According to the study, these benefits could add up to combined direct net benefits of approximately U.S. USD 470 billion across the 100 cities that were analyzed:

  • Consumers across the 100 cities could achieve nearly USD 28 billion per year in estimated direct net benefits. This impact would be derived from factors including up to 3.2 billion hours in time savings conducting banking, retail and transit transactions, in addition to a reduction in cash-related crime.
  • Businesses across the 100 cities could achieve more than US$D 312 billion per year in estimated direct benefits. This impact would be derived from factors including up to 3.1 billion hours in time savings processing incoming and outgoing payments and increased sales revenues stemming from extended online and in-store customer bases. The study also found that accepting cash and checks costs businesses 7.1 cents of every dollar received compared to 5 cents of every dollar collected from digital sources.
  • Governments across the 100 cities could achieve nearly USD 130 billion per year in estimated direct benefits. This impact would be derived from factors including increased tax revenues, increased economic growth, cost savings from administrative efficiencies and lower criminal justice costs due to reduced cash-related crime.

TR Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, Visa, India & South Asia, said

Cities are the new engines of economic growth. To unlock their true economic potential, and become globally competitive, cities must embrace digital payments. This global study shows how becoming more cashless delivers real benefits to governments, businesses and consumers, stimulating long-term economic growth. Each of the surveyed cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai could achieve, on average, USD 7.2 billion in annual net benefits – roughly the equivalent to 3 percent of each city’s average GDP.

As cities increase use of digital payments, the positive impacts can extend beyond financial benefits to consumers, businesses, and government. The shift to digital payments also may have a catalytic effect on the city’s overall economic performance, including GDP, employment, wage, and productivity growth.

Lou Celi, Head of Roubini ThoughtLab, said

The use of digital technologies – from smart phones and wearables to artificial intelligence and driverless cars – is rapidly transforming how city dwellers shop, travel, and live. Without a firm foundation in electronic payments, cities will not be able to fully capture their digital future, according to our analysis.

Cashless Cities: Realizing the Benefits of Digital Payments offers 61 recommendations for policymakers to help their cities become more efficient through greater adoption of digital payments. Recommendations include undertaking financial literacy programs to help move the unbanked into the banking system, implementing incentives to stimulate innovation focused on scaling new payment technologies, implementing secure open-loop payment systems across all transportation networks and more.

Visa and Roubini ThoughtLab created an online data visualization tool as a companion to ‘Cashless Cities: Realizing the Benefits of Digital Payments’. Using the data visualization tool, individuals can increase or decrease the level of digital usage in each of the 100 cities included in the study to better explore the benefits of a world, less dependent on cash. Visit the online data visualization tool and download the report from here.

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Flytxt have announced the availability of an intelligent voice interface for NEON-dX, its digital customer engagement product. NEON-dX will use analytics and Artificial Intelligence [AI] to personalize conversations on any digital touch point that supports Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Dr. Vinod Vasudevan, CEO, Flytxt, said

More than a quarter of all mobile searches in 2016 were done over voice. With speech recognition accuracy reaching over 95%, more and more consumers will adopt voice as the preferred medium to interact with their service providers.  With this interface, our enterprise customers can now engage their consumers in natural conversations using voice. This will significantly improve consumer experience and generate higher returns for enterprises.

NEON-dX has out of the box analytics and AI capabilities to translate data to actionable insights reflecting consumer’s persona, intent and contextual needs. Enterprises can leverage these insights and recommend right offers and actions during voice conversations seamlessly just like how a human agent will do. The interface will start supporting other voice platforms like Siri subsequently.

Flytxt has partnered with more than 100 enterprises including some of the largest Telcos and other enterprises in their digital customer engagement initiatives across the globe.

About Flytxt

Flytxt provides NEON-dX, an enterprise class software product for intelligent digital customer engagement automation. The product enables Artificial Intelligence based autonomous customer value management, helping enterprises to accelerate their digital transformation journey and generate measurable economic value faster and more efficiently. The solutions powered by Flytxt’s products and services help enterprises to grow revenues, reduce churn and enhance customer experience.

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PayPal, world’s leading payments platform have announced a 50 percent reduction in the Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate [FIRC] from Rs. 200 to Rs. 100 per transaction, for up to 20 transactions.

For more than 20 transactions, bulk FIRC fee will be levied at Rs. 2000. The move is in line to reduce the cost incurred in receiving payments from global markets and to encourage merchants to grow their cross-border business and realize the Government’s Make in India vision.

Narsi Subramanian, Director, Small Sellers & Consumers, PayPal India said

The reduction in the FIRC fee is in line with our commitment of becoming a customer champion and enabling merchants to grow their cross-border business in a profitable manner.

FIRC is a document that acts as a testimonial for all the inward remittances entering India. Most of the statutory authorities accept this document as proof that an individual or a business, such as a limited company, partnership firm, sole proprietorship firm and others, has received a payment in foreign currency from outside the country.

The freelancer market in India is growing immensely and PayPal is committed to help Indian freelancers improve profitability and improve the payment experience.

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PayPal is one of the most successful payment processors today. It is available in 202 countries with 203 Million active users. There are 770,793 websites currently accepting payments with PayPal, and this number is growing day by day.

PayPal has remarkable founders and employees, who have succeeded in different spheres later in life. Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, Jawed Karim, the former employees of PayPal founded YouTube, Reid Hoffman founded LinkedIn, Elon Musk founded Tesla, Yelp was founded by Russell Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman.

Find more interesting facts about PayPal in the infographic, that experts from Play-N-Pay compiled for you. Today we will cover the most interesting six facts about PayPal, which you should know.

$20, $10, $5 marketing strategy

In its early years, PayPal was charging money from every new user. At first, it was a $20 fee, then $10, $5 and PayPal grew at almost 10% per day. From March 2000 to August 2000, PayPal’s user base jumped from 1 million to 5 million. After this early success, PayPal quickly went public on NASDAQ.

PayPal went public twice

In 2002, PayPal stock grew to 55% on NASDAQ. After this in July, the same year eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion. This money gave the opportunity for PayPal’s founders to reshape much of the technological world we know today. In 2015, Ebay spun off PayPal, and the two companies were divided again. Since then PayPal stock grew about 56%, and eBay’s stock is up by 43%.

PayPal supports 26 currencies

Though PayPal supports 26 currencies, there are differences in the accounts for different countries. For example, there are many countries where PayPal users can’t enjoy some of the financial features that Americans do. They can’t cash out money from their online wallets, but they can still make purchases. Also, PayPal’s currency exchange rate is a bit lower for many currencies. But overall, it is a great help to make and receive payments for many people around the world.

PayPal demographics

43.86% of PayPal users are from the USA. The second comes from Germany with 17.61%, followed by the UK with 14.39%. 87% of millennials in the US use PayPal for receiving and sending money. Around 30% of PayPal transactions are made through mobile devices.

PayPal is all over the world

PayPal has 56 offices in 31 countries. It’s centers and offices are located in Arizona, Nebraska, California, Texas, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Ireland, China, India, and many others. Meanwhile, PayPal’s operations center is not in fancy Silicon Valley, but in Nebraska!
PayPal has 18,000 employees of 119 nationalities. 55% of them are millennials.

It is interesting to know, that there are 13 countries [Belarus, North Korea, Iran, and Iraq included] where PayPal is officially prohibited.

PayPal is a partner with numerous large companies such as Google, Facebook, Visa, Master Card, Telcel, and Vodafone.

Users love PayPal

86% of PayPal users are likely to recommend the service to their friends. Additionally, the US citizens consider PayPal to be the second safest payment system after credit card.

Source – Play N Play PayPal success story

Read the amazing story about PayPal and it’s growth here