One Thing Today in Tech
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Amazon to hire 55k worldwide; Apple's baby step towards opening App Store payments; and a chat with Whatfix's CEO
Amazon's new CEO Andy Jassy expects to hire 55,000 recruits in corporate and tech roles worldwide in the coming months. Of the new jobs, over 40,000 will be in the US, and the rest in countries including India, Germany and Japan. Apple will allow reader apps—spanning magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music and video—to link their software to external websites for payments. In our tech conversation, we learn from Whatfix CEO Khadim Batti how they boost digital adoption
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Google, Apple store duopoly banned in South Korea; Prosus to buy BillDesk for $4.7 bln; and a chat about Inflexor's tech fund
Google and Apple will have to allow alternative payment systems on their app stores in South Korea, which has become the first country to ban the tech giants' restrictive practice of forcing developers to use their payments systems exclusively and then charging them fees of up to 30 percent. In our tech conversation, Venkat Vallabhaneni at Inflexor Ventures discusses the VC firm's new deep-tech focused fund
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China limits game time for minors; Accel offers Atoms—pre-seed funding; and a chat on India's new drone rules
China has imposed strong rules to curb gaming addiction among minors in the world's most populous nation that is also home to some of the world's biggest tech companies. On Monday, Chinese regulators slashed the time period players under the age of 18 can spend on online games to an hour of gameplay on Fridays, weekends and holidays. In our tech conversation, we discuss how India's new drone rules could be a game-changer
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Special Briefing: Freshworks—marrying the art of Indian entrepreneurship and the science of Valley scaling
Girish Mathrubootham never went to one of India's premier technology schools—the IITs—nor did he attend one of its hallowed business schools—the IIMs. But, he's just made corporate and tech history in India with Freshworks becoming the first cloud software venture started by an Indian founder to start an IPO in the US. Here's a conversation with Mathrubootham from February. He spoke about shifting to the US, his billion-dollar revenue ambition, thoughts on a US listing, and how Covid-19 gave him a chance to take better care of himself
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India eases drone rules; Lenovo expands India manufacturing; and Abhinav Aggarwal on remaining bootstrapped at Fluid AI
Drones will now be much easier to operate in India. The central government has notified new rules that do away with several onerous requirements for those in the sector, paving the way for startups to ramp up the use of drones for everything from delivery of medicines and ecommerce purchases to aerial surveys for agriculture and conservation. In our tech conversation, Abhinav Aggarwal talks about staying bootstrapped and highly profitable at Fluid AI
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Afghan all-girl robotics team reaches Mexico; Infosys's new AI centre in Canada; and Amit Somani on Prime's latest fund
Five members of an all-girl robotics team from Afghanistan have arrived in Mexico, along with several media workers, fleeing an uncertain future at home after the recent collapse of the US-backed government and takeover by the Taliban. Infosys is planning a new AI centre in Canada staffing 500. In our tech conversation, Amit Somani talks about Prime Venture's fourth fund and hunt for a new partner
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South Korea closer to banning Google, Apple app store practices; Sequoia's biotech hedge fund; and a chat on Zoho Canvas
Google and Apple may no longer be able to charge their lucrative app store fees in South Korea if a plan to ban the practice in the country goes ahead. South Korea—home to Samsung Electronics—could become the first among the world's major economies to bar Google and Apple from charging software developers commissions on in-app purchases. In our tech conversation, a peek into Zoho's new Canvas, a no-code CRM personalisation tool
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India may see 600k daily Covid-19 cases due to vax delay; Infosys gets three weeks from FinMin; and Rahul Chowdhri on Stellaris's new fund
India may record an unprecedented 600,000 new infections a day if the country fails to boost the pace of vaccination and avert a third coronavirus wave, according to a new study. The National Institute of Disaster Management—which falls under the interior ministry—predicts a surge in cases as early as October. In our tech conversation, Rahul Chowdhri of Stellaris Venture Partners discusses the VC firm's new $225 million fund
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Infosys CEO summoned over tax portal glitches; Elon Musk's Tesla humanoid robot; and a chat about 'Robomimic'
Infosys CEO Salil Parekh has been summoned by India's finance minister to explain why the new income tax portal the IT services giant developed for the country remains glitch-ridden. Infosys had to undertake emergency maintenance over the weekend and the site even went offline until Sunday night. In our tech conversation, Ajay Mandlekar—a researcher at Stanford AI Lab—unpacks 'Robomimic' a new framework to improve robots' ability to learn from humans
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Amazon Alexa gets Amitabh Bachchan, Samsung Galaxy Z gets Alia Bhatt; and Counterpoint's Neil Shah on Google's smartphone strategy
Amazon has rolled out India's first celebrity voice feature on Alexa with the country's best known movie star Amitabh Bachchan. Indian customers can choose to add Bachchan's voice to their Alexa voice assistant on Echo devices or by pressing the mic icon on the Amazon shopping app (Android only) for an introductory price of Rs 149 for one year. Samsung has signed Alia Bhatt as brand ambassador or its Galaxy Z. And in our tech conversation today, Neil Shah of Counterpoint Research analyses Google's smartphone strategy
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Amazon backs Smallcase; GPT 3 worries AI researchers; and a hark back to a chat with Postman's Abhinav Asthana
Amazon has invested in Smallcase Technologies, a Bangalore startup that is making it very easy for people to invest in baskets of stocks and exchange traded funds, which it calls, well, smallcases. Amazon has joined a $40 million investment in Smallcase led by Faering Capital and Premji Invest, IT billionaire Azim Premji's family office. And today's conversation is a hark back to chat with Abhinav Asthana, whose company Postman has just become one of the most valued SaaS startups to be led by Indian founders anywhere