Online gaming industry in an uproar; Amazon gears up for Prime Day sale

Hello,

A day after announcing its withdrawal from its chip-making joint venture with Indian conglomerate Vedanta, Foxconn said it is working on plans to apply for incentives under the semiconductor and display fab programme, pledging its commitment to India.

Meanwhile, enterprise ecommerce startup Dukaan replaced 90% of its support staff with an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, Co-founder and CEO Suumit Shah tweeted. The layoffs come days after Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister of State for Electronics, Information and Technology, dismissed concerns about AI taking away jobs in India as "nonsense". 

Also, Amazon is looking to debut a TV show in India that will showcase promising startups in the country, TechCrunch reports. The show will also likely see Amazon cut checks to startups through its India-focused $250 million SMBhav fund.

In other news, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) completed a 24-hour "launch rehearsal" simulating the entire launch preparation and process of the Chandrayaan-3 mission to the moon. The organisation plans to launch Chandrayaan-3 onboard Launch Vehicle Mark 3 from Sriharikota on Friday, July 14. 

Oh, and here is a new 3D visualisation from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope that takes viewers on a journey back in time to just after the Big Bang. 

According to the space agency, “each second amounts to travelling 200 million light-years into the data set, and seeing 200 million years further into the past.”

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Online gaming industry in an uproar
• Amazon gears up for Prime Day sale
• Shark Tank India's investment influence

Here’s your trivia for today: Which element’s name and symbol (Cu) comes from the Latin name for Cyprus, where ancient Romans mined it?

Online gaming

Online gaming industry in an uproar

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has decided to impose a flat 28% GST on the full value of online gaming, horse racing, and casinos. The move to impose GST at the maximum tax slab has not gone down well with the online gaming industry.

"Today's decision at the GST Council is not in the national interest as it will destroy a significant portion of the successful companies in India's startup ecosystem," said Amrit Kiran Singh, Chief Strategy Advisor at Gameskraft.

Unhappy gamers:

• The decision may lead to job losses with fewer startups willing to operate. "It also hinders our ability to expand our reach to new markets and reach a wider audience," Aaditya Shah, COO of IndiaPlays, told YourStory.
• Roland Landers, CEO of All India Gaming Federation, said illegal platforms based offshore are most likely to benefit from the move.
• Industry insiders say the Council should continue with the current 18% tax regime or revise the 28% GST slab on gross revenue.

Funding Alert

Startup: Clensta

Amount: Rs 75 Cr

Round: Pre-Series B

Startup: Okulo Aerospace

Amount: $1M

Round: Pre-seed

Startup: BrainSight AI

Amount: Rs 1 Cr

Round: Equity

Ecommerce

Amazon gears up for Prime Day sale

Ahead of Amazon's upcoming Prime Day sale, scheduled to be held on July 15 and 16 in India, the ecommerce platform has expanded its same-day delivery programme in India to cover 21 more cities.

“For Prime Day, we are focused on strengthening our network. We have invested in infrastructure, both in terms of buildings and transportation,” Abhinav Singh, Vice President of Customer Fulfilment, Supply Chain and Amazon Transportation Services at Amazon India, tells YourStory.

Order shipped:

• Amazon Prime Day sale will see over 45,000 new product launches from 400 brands as well as over 2,000 new product launches from small and medium businesses.
• Many third-party fulfilment services are also expecting a boom in business. "We expect a jump of nearly 25% in volume terms for the sale days,” says a senior executive at a third-party logistics company.
• The event comes as overall marketing spends by brands have reduced across horizontal and vertical ecommerce platforms, notes Rishav Jain, Managing Director, Consumer and Retail Lead, at Alvarez & Marsal.

Investment

Shark Tank India's investment influence

The inaugural season of the popular business reality show Shark Tank India led to an increase in the valuation of startups, according to a report by Redseer Strategy Consultants. Most startups featured on the show secured deals with external investors at a value six times greater within a span of 1.5 years.

Raining deals:

• A total of 27 startups successfully secured funds from external investors, irrespective of their outcome on the show in season one.
• Out of 65 startups that got a deal, 16 were able to secure funding from external investors, amounting to a total deal value of Rs 70.7 crore.
• Consumer-facing concepts dominated the pitches on Shark Tank India, with 90% of the ideas centred around this segment.

News & updates

• Brands on Threads: Instagram is planning to bring its branded content tools to Threads, a source told Axios, giving marketers a way to get involved with paid promotion on the app while advertising is still off limits.
• Transatlantic data: A deal allowing tech companies to send user data between the European Union and the United States was completed Monday, resolving a disagreement over the ability of American intelligence agencies to access EU resident data.
• Tourflation: Economists are now taking note of tourflation, or the phenomenon of concerts indirectly affecting local inflation. From Beyoncé and Taylor Swift to Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Harry Styles and Ed Sheeran are taking over stadiums, and fans are flocking to see them, raising airfare and hotel prices. 

What you should watch out for

• IT services companies TCS and HCL Tech to announce Q1 earnings.
• Utkarsh Small Finance Bank will launch its Rs 500 crore IPO today.

Which element’s name and symbol (Cu) comes from the Latin name for Cyprus, where ancient Romans mined it?

Answer: Copper. The element gets its name from the Latin word ‘cuprum’ used for Cyprus, the island where the Romans first obtained copper. 

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