Thursday, 6th August ’20
Good morning, welcome to TMT Thursday. Gold prices have been hitting the roof as they cross the Rs 55,000 mark. A massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon has left a large part of Beirut port damaged. 100s lost their lives and thousands injured. We pray for Lebanon together. The foundation of Ram Temple was laid in Ayodhya by PM Narendra Modi.
Today, in 1945 an atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Also, today marks a significant day as in 1991, Tim Bernes Lee released the files describing his idea. It was this idea that helps us reach out to you every day. The idea was the internet.
Here are a few words from Tim Bernes Lee, to mark the occasion,
Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true, and the tendency to miss lunch.
MARKETS
Markets: Gold continues to sparkle as it crossed the Rs. 55,000 per 10 gms benchmark. The reasons for this rise in the price of Gold and Silver include push of liquidity by the Central banks, low-interest rates, rising COVID cases, and the trade war concerns. The Nifty index ended flat at 11,100 levels (up by 6 points). A mixed trend was witnessed wherein metals, auto, and consumer durables were the top gainers while energy and power were laggards.
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
- Bharti Airtel is set to sign a strategic alliance with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud arm of retail behemoth Amazon, to tap small-and-medium businesses with public cloud services in the country. They will lock horns with the Reliance Jio Infocomm-Microsoft combine as they compete for the $8 billion public cloud market.
- Google has launched Nearby Share, an Apple AirDrop alternative for Android smartphones, which lets users send pictures, files, links, and more to other nearby Android smartphones. It will be made available on Google Pixel and select Samsung phones for now and on the Chromebook in some time.
- Springboard, an online education platform that provides upskilling and reskilling training courses to people looking to learn in-demand roles, has raised $31 million. The platform, which expanded to India last year, connects students with mentors, more than 50% of whom work at Fortune 500 companies.
WHAT ELSE IS COOKING
- Lupin launches Covihalt for COVID treatment: Pharma major Lupin Limited has announced the launch of its Favipiravir in India under the brand name Covihalt for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19. It is available as 200 mg tablets in the form of a strip of 10 tablets and priced at Rs.49 per tablet. Sun Pharma has also launched its Favipiravir under the brand name FluGuard at Rs.35 per tablet.
India bans more Chinese apps, including some from Xiaomi, Baidu: India has banned some mobile apps of Chinese companies such as Xiaomi Corp and Baidu Inc, in New Delhi’s third move to hit Chinese companies following a border clash between the neighbors. Earlier in June, India outlawed 59 Chinese apps followed by a ban on 47 apps which mostly contained clones, or simply different versions, of the already banned apps
IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS
Viral Marketing
Dollar Shave Club, The Ice Bucket Challenge, The Big Word Project, Hotmail, etc. These are some of the finest examples of viral marketing where the message spread like a “virus”, hence deriving the name. Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product through word of mouth or organic growth. Memes, shares, likes, and forwards are some popular ways in which products or ideas can go viral. Once a campaign goes viral, it is an easy and cheap way to gain publicity.
Social media is a force multiplier here with billions of users on Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and others.
Let’s discuss some of the ways in which you can create viral content for your products
- Social Currency: If your content makes the customer feel important socially, they might spread it ahead. Eg Please don’t tell
- Triggers: Creating triggers so that you get at the tip of the tongue of your users. Eg Rebecca Black
- Emotion: Focussing on feelings rather than emotions is essential as social arousal can kindle a fire within the users. Eg United Breaks Guitar
- Public: Should be agreeable and something that can be shared with the users. Eg Livestrong bracelets
- Practical Value: Something that adds value is more willingly shared by the users.
- Stories: Campaigns that carry stories like a Trojan Horse are more acceptable and relatable by the readers. Eg Be a Scout campaign
MANAGERS’ CORNER – Tech Drive
Customer Genome
A more sophisticated approach is required for the capture, management, and use of data. Companies have started building customer data into “customer genomes” – living, “dynamic” profiles of preferences, motivations, and needs that go beyond what customers choose, to an understanding of why they make those choices.
The customer genome model defines specific and granular customer behavior and preferences, based on robust analytics that accounts for context, timing, and variations. Much like the genetic code in DNA molecules, each consumer comes to be defined by a unique profile. A customer genome model relies on focused efforts in three key areas:
- Sequencing
- Analyzing
- Experimenting
The customer genome model begins by capturing and combining data from products, services, and customer interactions into a library of granular attributes that form a unique, evolving profile for each customer. This includes traditional data such as demographics, location, purchasing history, and customer ratings. The more defined, specific, and extensive the attributes, the more powerful the customer genome will be.
An example is Netflix using an ever-improving system of “micro-tagging,” which assigns highly specific labels to content to identify every user’s preferred genre.
THE MILLIONAIRE MINDSET
Product of the Day – Xiaomi’s new Mi TV Stick
Product Features
- It has a form factor identical to Amazon Fire TV stick
- It is based on Android (runs on Android 9.0 out of the box) and offers Dolby and DTS sound support
- It supports Full HD resolution and maxes out at 60 frames per second
- The CPU in the media stick uses a quad-core setup and is supported by 1GB RAM
- For app storage, it gets 8GB of internal storage & can be downloaded via Google Play Store
Price
The device is priced at ₹2,799 to compete with its rival Amazon’s Fire TV stick (available at ₹2,599)
Availability
The new device will first be made available on 7 August at 12pm and will be sold via Flipkart, mi.com and Mi Home stores.
For more details, visit: https://www.mi.com/in/mi-tv-stick/
Written by Kumar Sourav Mohanty, Akansh Bhatt, and Shashank Dobhal
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