BUSINESS
Saregama buys 51.8% in 'Little Things' maker Pocket Aces for Rs 174 crore
Saregama said this acquisition will enable them to leverage Pocket Aces' distribution network of over 95 million followers to popularize its music library among the 18-35 audience segment.
BUSINESS
Meta's big generative AI bet: Chatbots, AI characters, creative tools, and more
Facebook parent Meta heats up AI arms race by bringing a slew of generative AI feature to its apps that billions of people use, including Instagram and WhatsApp
BUSINESS
Casual gaming studio QuriousBit bags $2 million funding from Lumikai, General Catalyst
Founded by former PlaySimple executives, QuriousBit aims to build casual puzzle games in India for the global audiences
BUSINESS
Death knell, fight for survival: Retrospective tax haunts India’s real-money gaming sector
The forthcoming 28 percent GST tax regime, combined with potential retrospective taxation dues, will make the overall operations unfeasible, likely leading many companies to wind down their businesses, executives say.
BUSINESS
Dream11 parent moves Bombay HC challenging GST evasion notice
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs is likely to send showcause notices to more than 40 skill-gaming companies for alleged tax evasion.
BUSINESS
PhonePe to open its app store to developers to counter Google, Apple clout
The Indus Appstore will allow developers to list their apps in 12 Indian languages apart from English and charge a zero percent fee on in-app purchases
BUSINESS
YouTube unveils new generative AI tools to help creators make better videos
YouTube also debuted a new mobile editing app called YouTube Create, that is designed to make video production easier for creators making short and long videos on smartphones.
TECHNOLOGY
OpenAI's ChatGPT will let users generate images with DALL-E 3 integration
OpenAI's move comes on heels of Google bolstering its Bard AI chatbot with deeper app integration and expanded visual search capabilities.
BUSINESS
Eloelo raises $22 million in funding led by Courtside Ventures, Griffin Gaming Partners
Eloelo plans to use the funds raised to partner with more creators, develop new AR & AI tools, and bolster its monetisation initiatives
BUSINESS
Kuku FM bags $25 million funding led by Nandan Nilekani's Fundamentum Partnership, IFC
Kuku FM plans to use the funds raised to further strengthen its content ecosystem and increase the depth of content across Indian languages, it states
BUSINESS
A23 owner Head Digital Works forays into online poker ahead of the 28% GST rollout
Head Digital Works expects online poker to make up nearly 20 percent of its revenues over the next three years
BUSINESS
Google deepens Bard AI chatbot's integration with Gmail, Docs, YouTube, more
Users can now enable Bard to interact with their Gmail, Docs and Drive accounts to summarize and answer questions across their personal content.
BUSINESS
Gameskraft ‘temporarily deprioritises’ super app plan in favour of building standalone apps
Gameskraft has launched super app Gamezy's rummy and ludo offerings as standalone apps while its fantasy offering will not be available from September 18
BUSINESS
Pokemon Go gets Hindi support amid big India push
As part of this launch, The Pokemon Company has renamed over 800 Pokemon in Hindi, in a bid to make them more relatable for the Indian fans.
TRENDS
Netflix strikes multi-year partnership with Yash Raj Films to bolster its original programming
As part of this tie-up, Netflix, Yash Raj Films will work together to create films and series that bring "defining stories" to audiences in India and across the world, the company said in a statement.
BUSINESS
Disney+ Hotstar hits new milestone as India vs Pakistan Asia Cup match draws 28 million viewers
Disney+ Hotstar has surpassed its previous record of 25.3 million concurrent viewers, which was set during the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup
BUSINESS
SC ruling on Gameskraft GST case could decide fate of India's real-money gaming industry
The skill-based gaming industry, which will now pay higher GST, will be further hit if the Supreme Court ruling is unfavourable, making them pay retrospective GST liabilities.
BUSINESS
Instagram's Threads rolls out keyword search to India, US and others
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the search feature will now be available in most English and Spanish speaking countries with more countries to follow
BUSINESS
Nazara Technologies to raise Rs 410 crore from SBI Mutual Fund
This fundraise comes on heels of Nazara Technologies issuing shares of up to Rs 100 crore to Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath's two firms - Kamath Associates and NKSquared.
TRENDS
Gameskraft case: SC stays Karnataka HC's judgment quashing Rs 21,000 cr GST notice
In September 2022, a GST intelligence unit issued a show-cause notice to Gameskraft Technology alleging that the company failed to pay Rs 21,000 crore in GST, the biggest such claim in the history of indirect taxation.
BUSINESS
Google to allow real-money games on Play Store after implementation of gaming rules
Google is providing a grace period for daily fantasy and rummy apps on Play Store until January 15, 2024, as the year-long real-money gaming pilot is set to end in September.
BUSINESS
After Zerodha’s Kamath, Nazara Tech to raise more capital to scale up its verticals, says Nitish Mittersain
A big focus area for Nazara Technologies is growing its portfolio of gaming IPs through acquisitions in the future.
BUSINESS
Garena postpones Free Fire India launch by a few weeks
Garena, the gaming arm of Singapore-based Sea Limited, said it is taking some time to fully complete its localisation of the Free Fire India experience, besides refining the gameplay.
BUSINESS
Krafton’s BGMI gets Indian government nod after 3-month trial
Krafton resumed the operations of its popular battle royale game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) on a three-month trial basis in May 2023.
