WhatsApp to Start Offering Health Insurance, Micro-Pension Products in India Soon
By the end of the year, WhatsApp is planning to start offering affordable health insurance coverage from SBI General. By Jagmeet Singh | Updated: 17 December 2020 16:45 IST
WhatsApp is leveraging its strong presence in India to go beyond instant messaging
Highlights
The Facebook-owned platform already has a payments feature
WhatsApp may take on PhonePe and Google Pay with its new move
WhatsApp is planning to start rolling out health insurance and micro-pension offerings in India. India Head Abhijit Bose revealed WhatsApp s roadmap towards bringing “critical financial and livelihood services” to mobile users in the country at the Facebook Fuel for India event. The Facebook-owned company is working with SBI General to launch health insurance products, while HDFC Pension and Singapore-based firm PinBox Solutions are on board for offering micro-pension products.
Facebook to test relaunched Instagram Lite in India
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it is testing a new, less data-intensive version of its photo and video sharing app Instagram in India, a key growth market for the U.S. social media giant.
The app, Instagram Lite, is less that 2MB in size, which will help it run smoothly on low-memory smartphones and broaden its userbase, the Menlo Park, California-headquartered company said.
The company is relaunching the Lite app after closing down a previous version, which operated chiefly in emerging markets, earlier this year. With the test of Instagram Lite. we re aiming to democratize expression and creativity for a greater number of people in India, Instagram vice-president of product Vishal Shah said at Facebook s first Fuel for India event, where the company showcased its products and services.
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The Bengaluru-based startup’s Singapore holding company PhonePe Pvt Ltd allotted 198,000 shares worth Rs 7,537 each to Flipkart Internet Holding, also listed in Singapore, according to regulatory filings accessed by ET through business intelligence platform Tofler. A PhonePe spokesperson declined to comment.
According to a source, the capital infusion “is routine” and will be used for internal business requirements.
In the spun-off entity, Flipkart will own 87%. Walmart, the Bentonville-headquartered retailer which has a majority stake in Flipkart, will directly own about 10%, and the balance 3% will be held by minority shareholders of Flipkart.
Sameer Nigam, the CEO of PhonePe, told ET then that the new ownership structure will give it more autonomy in fundraising through the open market and in managing internal operations, while also helping the company retain talent through equity-linked stock options.
PhonePe raises Rs 150 crore from Singapore parent days after spin off financialexpress.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from financialexpress.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Amazon Pay (India) Private Limited, the digital payments arm of the e-commerce giant reported its revenues for the financial year 2019-20 as Rs 1,370 crore, a 64 per cent jump since the last financial year. The company further reported a net loss of Rs 1,868 crore during the same fiscal. This is a 61 per cent increase from the last financial year, show regulatory documents sourced from business intelligence platform Tofler. The company’s total expenses for the fiscal were reported as Rs 3,238 crore. The payments arm competes with rivals Walmart-owned PhonePe, Alibaba-backed Paytm, and Google s mobile payment service Google Pay. After the closure of the financial year 2019-20, the firm has revised authorised share capital from Rs 6,000 crore to Rs 16,000 crore in an extraordinary general meeting held in September this year. The company has raised a capital of about Rs 3405 crore during and after the closure of the latest financial year from the parent company, for which allotment