100 MILLION USERS
How a Ludhiana bicycle parts maker became India's lord of the rings
Sunil Bharti Mittal began his entrepreneurial journey in 1976, starting a bicycle-parts business in Ludhiana. After facing various challenges, he transitioned into telecommunications by manufacturing push-button telephones. Mittal founded Airtel in 1995 and navigated through intense competition, especially with the arrival of Reliance Jio. His strategic decisions helped Airtel grow into a major player in both India and international markets.
Kuku TV Partners with Flipkart to Integrate SuperCoins Rewards into Subscriptions
Kuku TV has formed a partnership with Flipkart that allows users to earn SuperCoins on subscriptions. Users can receive up to 100% of their subscription value back in SuperCoins after subscribing through Flipkart. The integration will enable users to redeem SuperCoins within the Kuku TV app for eligible subscriptions. Future phases of the partnership will include more redemption options for subscription renewals and upgrades.
Deep use cases vault India to ChatGPT’s top global market: OpenAI's India MD
During a visit to India last year, the ChatGPT maker’s cofounder Sam Altman said that India was the fastest growing market for the frontier lab and was already the second largest in terms of users globally. Market estimates had earlier put the India user base at 100 million.
UPI sees Diwali boom; AI cracks Captcha
Diwali spending fuelled a surge in UPI transactions, with both payment volumes and values rising. This and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.
China app bets Rs 28,000 on your love life, promises refund if you don't marry in 3 years
A Chinese matchmaking start-up is offering users a full refund if they remain unmarried after three years, while using AI conversations and one-to-one matching to identify compatible partners. Founded by a former Kimi AI developer, Liangpei AI has attracted more than 35,000 users, but its ability to turn matches into marriages remains untested.
China's Singles Day shopping festival puts AI selling power to the test
If you are looking for evidence of how enthusiastically China is adopting AI, look no further than the country's premier month-long Singles Day shopping festival.
ShareChat hires creative directors as AI cuts microdrama costs by 40%: CTO Nitin Jain
Nitin Jain told the Economic Times Digital that AI has lowered the barrier to entry for creators, while the company's engineers now supervise AI-written code instead of writing it by hand.
Claude Fable 5.2, Claude Mythos 5.2: Anthropic unveils new AI models, check features, speed, price, release date
Claude Fable 5.2 targets coding, reasoning and AI agent tasks, while Claude Mythos 5.2 targets approved cybersecurity and life-sciences research applications.
Digital gains fail to offset TV ad slump, sports costs squeeze broadcasters
India's broadcasters continue to expand their digital and subscription businesses, which is not sufficient to offset declining ad revenues. The traditional television sector has been affected by decreasing pay-TV connections and a shift to digital advertising. Companies like JioStar, Zee Entertainment, and Sun TV Network reported mixed financial results amid these challenges. Subscription growth remained strong, but increased programming costs have impacted profitability significantly.
Equinix seeking land for India data centres: CEO
The world’s largest data centre operator by footprint, valued at nearly $100 billion, has invested $365 million in India and sees significant opportunities in AI inference, the process of using trained models to generate responses and run business applications. Such workloads require proximity to enterprise data, users and networks.
Canada launches free CRS calculator to help Express Entry candidates check new high-wage points
CanadaVisa has released a free online calculator for Express Entry candidates to determine their Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) scores following the implementation of Canada's high-wage occupation changes, effective November 3, 2026. The updated calculator factors in points for qualifying high-wage Canadian work experience or job offers, alongside other CRS factors such as age, education, language skills and employment history.
A family office with $36 billion took on $160 billion of exposure, and its founder got 18 years in prison
Sung Kook 'Bill' Hwang received an 18-year prison sentence for his involvement in the Archegos Capital Management collapse. The firm’s failure resulted in over $10 billion in losses for major banks. Prosecutors previously sought a 21-year sentence and over $12 billion in financial penalties from Hwang. During sentencing, the judge compared Hwang's actions to those of Sam Bankman-Fried from FTX.
ShareChat’s FY26 revenue jumps 40% to Rs 1,016 crore on microdrama push; net loss widens
However, its loss before tax widened to Rs 1,978 crore in FY26 from Rs 1,105 crore in the previous year, largely due to higher accounting expenses related to its convertible debt instruments, forex losses and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), cofounder and CFO Manohar Singh Charan told ET.
Days before Washington DC power outage, US Department of Energy had issued warning
On Monday, a power outage hit the Foggy Bottom area of Washington DC, leaving over 1,100 residents in the dark. The incident was caused by a malfunction at a Pepco substation, impacting essential government services nearby. Emergency teams responded quickly to reports of smoke and a manhole explosion close to the World Bank. Traffic lights were down, causing significant disruptions until power was restored later in the afternoon.
Sachin Tendulkar takes significant minority stake in Hitwicket maker Metasports Interactive
Sachin Tendulkar has acquired a minority stake in Metasports Interactive, the company behind Hitwicket. He will serve as the brand ambassador and a playable character in the game. Metasports aims for 100 million downloads in three years as it has 20 million currently. The game revenue has doubled in the past six months, with most revenue from in-app purchases.
From bikes to billions: Rapido’s gross order value quadruples in two years to $4 billion
The Bengaluru-based company is averaging around 8.3 million orders a day across its services, making it one of India’s largest consumer internet platforms by transaction volumes. Ride-hailing continues to comprise more than 95% of the company’s daily average orders.
OpenAI’s India user base doubles; Rapido GOV quadruples
Happy Tuesday! India has become ChatGPT’s largest market globally, with its user base doubling. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.
Grok bot users hit limits faster as Elon Musk warns of ‘unsustainably high’ AI agent costs: What happens next?
Grok Bot usage limits: Elon Musk says the cost of running Grok Bot has become unsustainable relative to its revenue as users report hitting weekly usage limits faster. Despite 800,000 paid weekly users, questions remain about the service's costs, pricing and future limits.
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