Netflix announces 9 new Indian originals; Amazon rolls out audiobook service Audible in India

Saturday November 10, 2018 , 2 min Read

After the critical success of its first-ever Indian original series Sacred Games that premiered in July, Netflix is ramping up its India content. It announced nine new Indian originals including eight films and a web series set in Goa. The new originals are spread across languages including English, Hindi and Marathi signalling Netflix’s intent on capturing the fastest-growing segment on India internet - the vernacular video audience.

Amazon has rolled out its subscription-driven audiobook service in India. Audible has launched on Android, iOS and Amazon Cloud Player (on the desktop) with a selection of over 200,000 audiobooks across genres and languages. With a 30-day free trial for all users extending to 90 days for Prime members, users have to pay Rs 199 per month to continue. There are also half-yearly and yearly subscription plans to choose from. However, payment options are limited for now, with Amazon accepting only credit cards and ICICI Bank debit cards in India.

Last mile connectivity is a real problem. A lot of us have had issues of getting from Point A to Point B, be it getting home from the metro station or the bus stop, or vice versa. Akash Gupta, Ex-VP of fintech company MobiKwik and Rashi Agarwal, former S&P Capital IQ executive, co-founded Mobycy - an ‘Uber’ for bicycles. It is a bicycle and e-bike sharing app that allows you to rent a vehicle by the hour.

It might be safe to suggest that podcasts are now mainstream in India. Say hello to Delhi-based Hubhopper! A homegrown podcast and news curation app with a focus on India-centric content. What started as an iOS-only trend in 2014 is now gripping Indian millennials slowly yet surely. India-centric podcasts and varied short-form audio content coupled with dropping mobile data prices have led to a podcast boom in recent years.

Google overhauls its sexual harassment and misconduct policy! After 20,000 employees staged a walkout across the world, CEO Sundar Pichai was forced to make a change. The company announced a comprehensive “action plan” to deal with the sexual harassment in the company, with a sound misconduct policy in place. Most notably, Google won’t force its employees making sexual harassment claims into private arbitration