STARTUP
WinZO turns to micro dramas, US expansion after India's real-money gaming ban
WinZO's US expansion comes two years after its foray into Brazil in October 2023, following the government's introduction of a 28 percent GST on real-money gaming apps.
BUSINESS
Dream11 parent forays into wealth tech after gaming ban, pilots new FD and gold investment app
Dream Money enables people to buy gold or set up a SIP on a daily or monthly basis, starting from Rs 10. It also offers fixed deposit investments from Rs 1,000.
STARTUP
Online Gaming Bill: Dream11 parent firm, Gameskraft, Zupee, MPL begin suspending its RMG offerings
The proposed gaming law explicitly prohibits the offering of online money games or RMG apps, with penalties of up to three years of imprisonment or fines of Rs 1 crore for violations.
STARTUP
Online Gaming Bill: Kavin Bharti Mittal's Rush to exit India following government’s proposed RMG ban
Rush, a casual RMG platform from Kavin Bharti Mittal's Hike, now intends to focus entirely on the United States and other global markets like the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
ARTIFICIAL-INTELLIGENCE
Games24x7 seeks to back AI, inclusive tech startups from India's smaller cities
Games24x7’s accelerator, TechXpedite, will broaden its scope to cover AI-driven skill development and inclusive technologies in its third edition
BUSINESS
Bhavin Turakhia-led Titan partners with GoDaddy for business email push in developing markets
GoDaddy will integrate Titan’s email product into its Professional Email product, aimed at small businesses and entrepreneurs.
TECHNOLOGY
OpenAI's ChatGPT pilots rupee pricing in India
ChatGPT is offering its Plus tier for Rs 1,999 per month to customers in India while the costlier Pro tier is available for Rs 19,900 per month.
BUSINESS
AI entertainment startup Dashverse raises $13 million funding led by Peak XV Partners
Dashverse is building AI-powered tools and platforms such as DashReels and Frameo.AI to help creators develop mobile-first entertainment content
TECHNOLOGY
Snap restructures engineering teams, places monetisation unit under Ajit Mohan
Snapchat’s parent saw a slowdown in advertising growth in Q2 2025, hurt by an ad platform glitch and intensifying competition.
TECHNOLOGY
Google's Gemini now lets users create personalised storybooks with audio narration
Gemini's Storybook feature allows people to upload their own photos or files to bring personal artwork or memories to life or explain complex topics to young children.
BUSINESS
Gaming infra startup GameRamp raises $5.4 million pre-seed funding led by Bitkraft Ventures
GameRamp helps video-game developers and consumer apps to scale and monetise faster using artificial intelligence
TECHNOLOGY
Spotify Premium gets costlier in India with price hike of up to 28%
Spotify’s first price hike in India comes amid the audio streaming service's broader efforts to improve margins and achieve long-term profitability.
TECHNOLOGY
CCI expands AdTech antitrust probe against Google
In a separate order, CCI has rejected ADIF’s complaint against Google’s online search advertising services related to its Google Ads policies.
TECHNOLOGY
Reddit to unify its search experience in a bid to become a 'go-to search engine'
Reddit is sharpening its focus on improving its core product and expanding into international markets. At the same time, the social platform is deprioritizing several 'user economy' initiatives.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple 'open to' AI acquisitions to accelerate roadmap, says Tim Cook
Apple is stepping up its AI investments and also reallocating employees as it tries to catch up with rivals such as Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft amid growing competition.
BUSINESS
Gaming community app Stan bags $8.5 million from Google, Nazara, others
Stan plans to use the funds raised to expand its presence in India and other mobile-first markets, and invest in AI-driven personalisation and creator tools.
TECHNOLOGY
Google proposes allowing all RMG apps on Play Store, finalising 'appropriate' business model
Google’s proposal comes as CCI investigates its policies related to the RMG sector in India. The company has been accused of abusing its dominant position, denying market access and misleading warnings during app downloads, among others.
TECHNOLOGY
Meta's AI hiring blitz: Employee compensation to drive up 2026 expenses
In recent months, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pursuing and poaching some of the most sought-after AI talent from rivals such as OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and Apple, offering billion-dollar compensation packages
TECHNOLOGY
How Spotify is rewiring for AI era to supercharge personalisation? Top executive explains
Spotify’s AI DJ and AI Playlist features signal the audio streaming giant's broader effort to tap generative AI for next-level personalisation.
TECHNOLOGY
Spotify nears 700 million users but swings to quarterly loss in Q2 2025
Higher expenses related to employees, professional services, marketing, and so-called social charges pushed Spotify to a $100 million loss in Q2 2025.
TECHNOLOGY
AI talent wars: Google ‘competitive on all fronts,’ will keep investing in people and compute, says Sundar Pichai
Google and other tech giants are competing fiercely to attract and retain top researchers, engineers, and developers in the race to dominate the rapidly evolving AI sector
TECHNOLOGY
Google parent to hike its spending to $85 billion in 2025 as AI race heats up
Over the past year, Google has released a slew of new AI-powered products and rapidly integrated these capabilities across its product suite amid intensifying competition.
STARTUP
Want to build a lasting company? Accel's Subrata Mitra says resilient teams and enduring problems are key
Accel's Subrata Mitra, an early backer of the e-commerce giant Flipkart, said that startups should pick a problem they believe will stand the test of time.
BUSINESS
Google expands data residency efforts in India with local processing of Gemini 2.5 Flash
This move is expected to help Google attract customers in sectors such as financial services, healthcare, and the public sector, which handle sensitive data and have strict data residency needs, as AI becomes more widely adopted.
