Daybreak: Recent Episodes
The Ken
Business news is complex and overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be. Every day of the week, from Monday to Friday, Daybreak tells one business story that’s significant, simple and powerful.
Hosted from The Ken’s newsroom by Snigdha Sharma and Rahel Philipose, Daybreak relies on years of original reporting and analysis by some of India’s most experienced and talented business journalists.
The government of India launched Digiyatra, a contactless, facial-recognition-based passenger-entry system, in December last year. The idea is for those who sign up on the platform to avoid the tedious process of getting their ID and flight tickets checked by CISF personnel at airports.
But lately, stories of passengers being forced to sign up for the app are surfacing on social media. Meanwhile, airlines, which are important stakeholders to make the entire endeavour successful are unable to see any benefits for themselves. Airports though see it as a great opportunity. In fact, multiple sources close to the implementation of Digiyatra told The Ken that the whole idea of Digiyatra came from airports themselves.
What's in it for them?
Tune in.
Recommendation
What airports really want to do with Digiyatra
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
A few months ago, multiple Hotstar executives had told The Ken the same thing. “IPL or no IPL, cricket is going to be the platform’s most important customer-acquisition funnel this year.” It seems Disney Star is holding on to that strategy. The Asia Cup is going to be streamed for free on Disney Hotstar from today onwards.
Even after losing the IPL's digital streaming rights, Disney+Hotstar is the leader of the Indian OTT space in terms of subscriber numbers. But OTT is a complex business and just having the largest subscriber base is not really enough, at least not in India.
In fact, Disney has been on quite the downturn in India. And the way its headed, it almost seems like its making space for Jio to come take its crown.
Tune in.
Free Read
Project Manager is dead. Long live the Product Manager
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
The mattress industry in India this year is valued at around $2.5 billion and growing at a CAGR of 10%. Up to 9 million mattresses are sold in the country every year.
Among the top brands in the mattress market is Sleepwell, owned by Sheela Foam, the largest manufacturer of Polyurethane Foams (PU) in Asia Pacific. Despite having a fourth of the market share and conditions ripe for innovating and growing, the company had been in a limbo of sorts.
Until last month, when it announced it was acquiring a 95% stake in Kurl-On, another popular mattress maker.
What's in this deal for Sleepwell?
Tune in.
RecommendationUp all night: Capitalising on India’s big sleep gap
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
Over the course of a year or so, we’ve seen how one by one, the chances of Byju's survival have been narrowing down. However, there’s one thing that could possibly save it from falling apart: Aakash, the offline coaching chain that Byju’s had acquired in 2021 for a staggering $950 million.
Now, with its IPO upcoming in mid-2024, the struggling edtech giant has a lot riding on Aakash's success.
But Byju’s is turning out to become quite the troublesome partner for Aakash, no thanks to its aggressive sales tactics. These selling hacks are driving a wedge between the two teams on the ground and the plans to integrate have been put on hold.
Tune in.
Recommendation
Aakash’s sales force has no love lost for Byju’s
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
For the longest time, despite being a giant steel-to-software conglomerate, Tata’s consumer goods game was nowhere close to India's top FMCG companies.
Ever since 2019 though, when it decided to merge Tata Chemicals and Tata Beverages as Tata Consumer Products Ltd, the FMCG arm has been on a roll. In the recent financial year alone, it introduced more than 30 new products.
Meanwhile, Tata Consumer’s shares have more than tripled. The Nifty FMCG index also almost doubled. What changed?
Tune in to find out.
RecommendationHow Tata Consumer’s Sunil D’Souza put product launches on steroids
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
Last week, the edtech unicorn Unacademy fired Karan Sangwan, a law teacher for asking students to vote for educated candidates during elections in one of his video tutorials on YouTube. According to the edtech, Sangwan had breached the code of conduct by sharing his 'personal opinion.'
While this case is of a slightly different nature pertaining to one individual, Unacademy's relationship with its educators in general hasn't been great either.
With dwindling sales and a funding crunch, edtechs like Unacademy have made tutors their new sales force. Teachers are being forced to make viral content to meet targets but for many, it is too much to handle.
Tune in.
RecommendationThe product-market-fit hole in Unacademy’s SaaS offering, Cohesive
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
A March 2022 report from the World Health Organization said that over 17% of households in India incur catastrophic health expenditures every year. And it results in the impoverishment of around 55 million people. Anyway, it's just about 37% of the population that actually has any form of health insurance.
In such circumstances, if the rate at which a health insurance company denies claims begins to rise, it is a matter of concern. Star Health, one of India's leading health insurers, had the highest number of claims outstanding among the standalone health insurance companies for the year ended March 2022. Aggrieved customers have been running from pillar to post for payouts, turning to social media and consumer courts for respite.
And yet, Star Health's new business is still growing and its retail policy renewal rate remained unaffected.
Tune in.
Recommendation:
IPO-bound Digit trusts its tech to sell health insurance, but consumers don’t yet
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Reliance controls just 3% of India’s retail market. You might think it's a tiny share. But 80% of the retail industry is unorganised. And overall, the retail sector in our country is worth nearly 900 billion dollars. So to control even 3% of it is a big deal.
But it is refining and petrochemicals that is the Reliance's biggest business.
Why is it then that since the last three years, Reliance Retail is being made to headline the conglomerate's annual report?
Tune in.
Free Read:
Lenskart’s CEO and chief people officer Peyush Bansal has a people problem
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
Beets are a superfood today. Tomorrow it'll be lemons. The internet is rife with misinformation especially about food and health related stuff. There are hundreds of influencers on your feed telling you what’s good for you.
But who’s telling you what’s bad and what doesn't work? Maybe a keto diet worked for your friend but not for you. Take Dr Cyriac Abby Philips who goes by The Liver Doc on Twitter. Recently, he claimed there is no point in taking multivitamins.
He is a de-influencer and there are many like him who work towards breaking down myths. Often they're faced with legal action and threats, yet most of them continue their work.
But what is really fuelling de-influencers?
Tune in.
Recommendation
The wild finfluencer party is finally coming to an end Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
After a delay of almost a year Ola Electric finally released its financials this week. The company was valued at $5 billion last year and so far it has raised nearly $800 million from investors, including Softbank. With a 40% market share, it is the leader of the two-wheeler EV market in India. It has already sold over 250,000 vehicles.
Ola Electric has set up 600 experience centres around the country where people can go take test rides. But the company only has 200 service centres. Its lack of focus towards after-sales servicing is upsetting customers. Plus, the financials point towards a 4X loss in FY 2022.
Meanwhile, its competitors like Ather and Bajaj are strategically going for a service-first policy.
Tune in.
Recommendation
Why $3 billion set aside for India’s EV makers is sitting idle
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
Known for its high-end EV models, earlier this year, Tesla went on a cost-cutting spree. Six months ago though, the EV-maker was on the verge of shutting down its office in India.
But last week, the company took up a sprawling office space in Pune on a 5 year-long lease. And last month, it was reported that Tesla’s plans to set up a factory in India with a yearly capacity of 5 lakh EV units.
Now, at a time when there is a the general fall in EV prices, it is admittedly chasing growth—even if it comes at the cost of profitability. In fact, the starting price-range of Tesla models in India could be as less as US$24,000.
Looks like the EV-making global giant is picking up cues from the reigning giant of India’s passenger EV market—Tata Motors.
Tune in.
Recommendation
Why Tesla is surely watching Tata, BYD
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
The voice of the gig worker is getting louder and it's coming to a point where neither delivery companies nor the govt can afford to ignore it for much longer.
Last month, the Rajasthan government came up with a new law that aims to establish a welfare board and a dedicated social security fund for platform-based gig workers in the state. One could say the new law sets a precedent for gig workers across the country. However, that is only if you take it for face value.
Once you look beyond the headlines and go through the technicalities of the law, it doesn't paint as rosy a picture for the aggrieved gig workers.
Tune in to fine out more.
Recommendation
Gig-worker strikes are just the tip of the iceberg, unionisation lies beneath
India’s first law to protect gig workers is surprisingly good news for their employers
Does the delivery-partner fee you pay 'fully go to them for their time and effort'? Nope
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
UPI or the Unified Payments Interface has revolutionised the way we use money. So much so that we don't think twice about freely accept financial connections with strangers. Since its launch seven years ago, 300 million users in India are on the UPI platform freely carrying out financial transactions.
But did you know that your bank can block your account without a warning or any explanation? And what's worst, you could even come under the radar of law enforcement authorities like the cyber crime police. Anyone who unknowingly makes a transaction, directly or indirectly, with a fraudster can be considered suspicious by authorities.
Meanwhile, banks and law enforcement agencies are yet to figure out a standard operating procedure in dealing with such matters. This had led them to adopt a ‘block first, ask questions later’ approach that's been making the lives of innocent victims even harder.
Tune in to find out more.
Recommendation
On the UPI social network, who do you ‘know’? And who do ‘they know’?
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
Once upon a time, not too long ago actually, Byju's was the world’s most valuable edtech. Now its in a big mess. And that’s putting it mildly.
But Byju’s employees got the worst end of the stick because of all that the company has been going through. The Ken spoke to employees who told us they have been fired arbitrarily without any notice. In fact, they are being forced to resign.
And like that wasnt enough to deal with, some companies have specifically told recruiters not to look at Byju’s employees.
Tune in.
Recommendation
Indian lenders cut off Byju’s air supply by not lending to its users
The seven things you need to know about Byju’s FY21 financials
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Last month, the global tech giant Microsoft India saw its revenue hit $3 billion, much closer to its $5 billion target by 2025. A Mumbai based sales leader told The Ken that in 2022, Microsoft India grew twice the growth of Microsoft globally.
Behind the company's success was Anant Maheshwari who had been leading it for the last seven years. Described as an aggressive salesman and hard taskmaster, while he took the Microsoft India to new heights, his leadership style left a section of employees feeling dejected.
What was going on inside the walls of the tech giant?
Tune in to find out.
Recommendation
The ChatGPT effect: Microsoft gaining momentum in cloud race against Amazon and Googleby Pratap Vikram Singh
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribefor more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
Nine years ago, Urban Company (then UrbanClap) disrupted the market and eventually went on to become Asia's largest home services marketplace. Last year, the US$2 billion company was ranked as one of the top-rated platforms for gig workers in Fairwork India Ratings.
But just a year later now, Urban Company partners are are protesting nationwide against the platform's arbitrary and unfair policies. Meanwhile, customers are growing increasingly unhappy with the services. The company is also grappling with losses and has been cutting costs to achieve profitability.
But the rising anger from both ends, customers and partners, is coming in its way and managing both is getting quite difficult.
Tune in.
Recommendation
Urban Company is caught between angry customers and angrier partners
Urban Co’s three-way balancing act in search of profitability
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The fintech sector has been buzzing after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) permitted credit lines on UPI a few months ago. From what we know so far, banks are likely to gain the most out of it.
But a credit line-backed UPI product will also change how customers use credit. While they might continue to choose credit cards for high-value purchases, for smaller purchases like groceries and clothes, they could very well start looking at the new product.
The whole rewards system which had been helping issuers draw huge numbers of credit-card users, is going to change with it. In fact, it may even come to and end.
Tune in.
Recommendation
The Indian credit market is ripe for disruption again
Free airport lounge access helped sell more credit cards. Now its come to bite banks
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribefor more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
In the first half of this year, from January to June, Tata Motors had 3/4th of the passenger EV market share despite relentless competition from the likes of Mahindra & Mahindra and other newer rivals.
Its revenue for FY23 stood at almost $8 billion. The not-so-secret secret behind this success Tata Motors' its Xpres-T EV sedan—the go-to for cab companies and fleet operators that are looking to switch to greener alternatives.
Xpres-T could easily to capture the cab market except Tata Motors maybe deliberately downplaying this bit of its success so far.
Tune into find out why.
Recommended reading:
Why $3 billion set aside for India’s EV makers is sitting idle
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Yesterday, Netflix announced that it will be starting password sharing restrictions in India. The OTT giant will only allow users on the same internet connection to access a particular account. Anybody who is not a part of what its calling "Netflix Household" will not be able to access content.
While move did not come as a surprise since Netflix has already implemented it in many countries like the USA already, that it is using the same strategy in India, a market it has been struggling with for a while, is interesting.
Will this new move help Netflix get more subscribers in India?
Tune in.
Recommendations
Netflix’s last growth market
Spotify adopts Indian habits to avoid the ‘Netflix problem’
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Pharmeasy, once the highest-valued Indian healthcare startup, is planning to raise money in a new round of funding at a 90% markdown from its previous valuation.
From $5.6 billion to $500 million.
All because Pharmeasy had to take another debt to pay off its previous debt. The second time though, interest rates were not zero.
What's going on?
Tune in.
Recommendation
Byju’s is looking like a hedge fundThe tail of acquisitions wagging India’s funding dog
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From Rs 400 per piece in 2019, the shares of Reliance Retail, went up to Rs 4000 by 2021 in the unlisted market. Reliance Retail is India’s largest operator of supermarkets, apparel outlets, and electronics stores. And its shares were the hottest cake in the grey market for a while.
Many investors expected it go go for a public listing until a little more than a week ago when Mukesh Ambani threw in a surprise. The company said it would effectively cancel the holdings of its minority investors and offer them Rs 1,362 per share. Basically, Reliance Retail had cancelled its shares held by minority investors leaving them shocked and confused.
What made the company take this decision? And what should retail investors learn from this?
Tune in.
RecommendationWhy investors are buying what Reliance Retail is selling
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Delivery partners who work for Swiggy or Zomato are paid per order. The fee which includes variables like base fee, surcharge, etc, depends on how many kilometers they’ve travelled from pickup to delivery destination. These payments though, are never consistent and gig workers, who make our lives so convenient, struggle with earning a stable income.
So when Zomato says on their bill under the delivery partner fee, 'fully goes to them for their time and effort,' we appreciate it thinking the money we've paid has gone to the delivery partner.
Except, it doesn't.
Tune in.
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribefor more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
Ad scams in India using tech platforms like Google, Meta, or even e-marketplaces such as Olx are becoming increasingly common and dangerously creative. People have been losing anything from a few thousands to even a few crore rupees to cyber crime syndicates who have proficient, tech-savvy members.
The amount of money consumers have reported losing to fraud that originated on social-media platforms has skyrocketed since 2017. Last year alone, people reported losing more than $1.2 billion to fraud that started on social media.
What are the likes of Google and Meta doing to prevent these crimes? Is it enough?
Tune in.
Recommendation
On Google and Facebook’s watch, cybercrime syndicates flourish by Pratap Vikram Singh
For many years, finfluencers have been enjoying an almost no-holds barred party in the Indian market since they operate outside Sebi's regulatory ambit. While there is no doubt about the importance of their role in combating India's rampant financial illiteracy, many often give advice that is generic, underplaying risks, and overplaying returns.
After reviewing several complaints, two weeks ago, Sebi Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch was asked about Sebi's views on regulating influencers once again. This time she did put India's financial influencers on notice.
A SEBI circular seems to be on its way and finfluencers have good reason to be worried.
Tune in.
RecommendationSebi’s Madhabi Puri Buch and the art of keeping market players on tenterhooks
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Credit card companies, in their rush to sell more and more cards use a whole gamut of attractive offers—the most popular one being free access to airport lounges. Thanks to this and the sharp rise in domestic air travellers, last year, airport lounges saw of football of over 8.5 million people.
What was once an exclusive service became a top-selling feature, even for non-premium cards issued by banks. Lounge access became overused and an expensive bill to foot for credit card issuers.
Earlier last month, Axis Bank, the country’s fourth-largest credit-card issuer, revised its lounge policy. But retracting the freebie altogether is not a risk banks can afford to take.
What are they doing then?
Tune in.
Recommendation:
Credit-card issuers can’t bank on their most profitable users
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Since November 2022, when Paytm shares dropped to an all-time low, the fintech giant has been on a steady recovery path. If all goes well, its share price may cross Rs 1000 soon.
But what's even more interesting is the sharp jump in its loan distributions in FY23. In the March quarter of the same year, Paytm distributed nearly 12 million loans worth over 1.5 billion dollars.
And last Friday, Paytm’s parent company even announced a partnership with Shriram Finance, an NBFC that's known for its deep understanding of risk and more importantly, its collections capabilities.
What's driving this prolific growth and how is Paytm growing its loan business in the post-FLDG era?
Tune in.
**Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an investor in The Ken
Recommendation
Paytm’s results hint at a turnaround. But loan-collection hacks drive it by Gaurav Noronha, Arundhati Ramanathan
Paytm IPO tells, and tells a lot, but doesn’t show by Arundhati Ramanathan
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On Thursday, Kotak Institutional Equities, released a note and turns out, Zomato managed to maintain its lead over Swiggy with a 55% market share in the year 2022. Swiggy is at 45%.
Swiggy and Zomato have been constantly win the bigger share in India’s $5 billion food delivery market. But it was Swiggy that had the portion share just three years ago.
Inherently, both the food delivery companies are quite different from each other. And it is this difference that's been giving Zomato an edge lately.
Recommended reading:
Why Swiggy is building a Shopify for local brands
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ICICI's stock has tripled since 2018—the year when ICICI’s current CEO Sandeep Bakhshi took over. Loans and deposits are growing strong, margins are healthy, and investors can’t seem to get enough of the blue-chip company. Bakshi joined at a time when the bank was reeling from the after-effects of his predecessor Chanda Kochchar's controversial exit.
The bank was experiencing a high rate of attrition and employees needed reassurance and stability. Bakshi gave them just that. He revamped the bank's HR policy, bringing about a democratisation with decisions like the standardisation of appraisals and tenure-based promotions.
All these moves made him quite the favourite amongst many current and even former employees. But it has also led to the creation of a faction of young disgruntled high-performers who feel they are not incentivised enough. And they are resigning.
Tune in.
Recommendation:At ICICI Bank, Sandeep Bakhshi’s people-first strategy costs top people by Rounak Kumar Gunjan
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For decades, the 60 year old BIT Pilani, one of the most prestigious science and engineering institutions in the country, has been second to India's crown jewels–the IITS.
Now, the institute is on a mission under the leadership of its Group Vice Chancellor, V Ramgopal Rao. A syllabus revamp after a decade, a US$100M endowment fund from alumni, 10% of faculty from industry, allowing a year off for startups—BITS has taken some major leaps
It wants to be on the top with the IITs.
Tune in.
Recommended reading:
BITS Pilani is tired of playing second fiddle to IITs by Alifiya Khan
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Starting April, major non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), including Avanse Financial Services, Aditya Birla Finance, and Fullerton India, which lend to Byju’s’ customers, suspended loans for the edtech. These play an important role in allowing Byju's to make its sales to its customers via zero-interest EMIs.
With sales slowing down, the edtech desperately needs these financing options because its one year courses range from anything between Rs 20,000 to Rs 1.4 lakh. Not all its customers can afford to pay it all in one go. This is why Byju’s tied up with these NBFCs in the first place.
But now that the non-banks have left the building, what is the ailing giant doing to survive?
Tune in.
Recommendations:Byju’s has one escape routeIndian lenders cut off Byju’s air supply by not lending to its users
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribefor more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
On Thursday evening news broke that Deloitte, the biggest audit firm in the world, has resigned as Byju's statutory auditor. This couldn't come at a worse time for the edtech giant. Just hours before this, three of its key board members also tendered their resignations over differences with the company's founder.
It was in September last year when, after a long delay that raised many eyebrows, Byju’s had finally released its financials for the year 2021. The delay was because Deloitte was not satisfied with what Byju’s was presenting to them as a fair picture of their accounts. It gave it an "adverse opinion."
Months have passed since and there is still no sign of Byju's financials for FY2022. Worst still, the company's own projection of a Rs 10,000 crore revenue for the same year seems to be incorrect.
Tune in.
Recommendations:
The seven things you need to know about Byju’s FY21 financials
WTFinancials is going on at Byju's?
Byju’s is looking like a hedge fund
Indian lenders cut off Byju’s air supply by not lending to its users
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribefor more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
Despite being called ‘the pharmacy of the world,’ time and again, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has received criticism for substandard quality. Last year, the deaths of children in Gambia and Uzbekistan were allegedly linked to cough syrups manufactured in India.
Yesterday, the WHO flagged seven more Indian-made cough syrups for containing toxic chemicals.
Why does Indian Pharma still struggle with quality control?
Tune in to find out.
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribefor more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
When Tata acquired the e-grocer, BigBasket, at a reported valuation of $2 billion in mid-2021, the company was loss-making. For those at BigBasket, it was an opportunity to shift their focus back to the company’s core business: doorstep grocery delivery.
While it was a bit too late when Tata realised its new acquisition was left out from the quick commerce game, there is one game that BigBasket seems to be clearly winning.
Tune in to find out.
Recommended reading: Torn between growing competition and Tatas’ ambitions, $3.2B BigBasket is at a crossroads
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribefor more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
The Indian Railways exclusively provides travellers a 10 lakh rupees worth insurance cover on booking train tickets online for less than half a rupee. Despite this, a large majority of Indian travellers are not covered by any form of travel insurance.
Just a little more than 30 crore lives were covered by general and health insurers for domestic travel, according to the annual report of India’s insurance regulator IRDAI.
Why?
Tune in
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribefor more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
Over the years, the more health conscious we became, the more cooking oil-markers pushed different variations of words associated with 'health' in their branding. But they've been burying the caveat in the fine print.
For example, Adani Wilmar’s refined soybean oil goes by the brand name ‘Fortune Soya Health’ in bold letters on the front of the pack. But if you turn the pouch around, you'll notice at the back, in small tiny letters, it reads: “The word ‘health’ is only a brand name and does not represent the product's true nature.”
Tune in to find out how cooking oils brands available in the Indian market have been knowingly misleading consumers and how bad refined oils can be for you health.
Recommended reading: Fortune Vivo oil meets its inevitable sticky end
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribefor more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
In the last few years post-pandemic, fleet-management companies like Everest have become the silent battalion in Uber's army of cabs. In fact, 90% of Everest's fleet is with Uber.
This, of course, has helped Everest grow its revenues by 150X. Both seem to have found their relationship to be mutually beneficial. Everest gets to run its assets on a high demand platform. And for Uber, it become so much easier to manage its cars. No need to deal with hiring and training drivers.
Now, Uber is deepening its ties with Everest, especially since it wants to roll out EVs. But as Uber gives more control to the fleet management company, the basics of the ride hailing business could change forever.
Just two years ago quick commerce became all the rage. Now, it's slowly becoming a relic of the pandemic. The biggest names in the business have been tumbling over in the past few months. They've either been shutting down their quick delivery businesses or they're rolling back the number of their dark stores.
Meanwhile, Zepto, one of the leading quick delivery platforms that made ten minute deliveries a thing, is among the first in the Indian quick-commerce space that hasn’t had layoffs or store closures in recent times. Nor has it pivoted to new verticals.
In fact, its founder Adit Palicha who spoke to The Ken told us he sees no reason to turn away from delivering groceries in minutes.
Tune in.
Recommended reading: Zepto is looking for a chairDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribefor more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
Last week, edtech giant Byju's saw its valuation come crumbling down from $22 billion to $8billion. And June 5, 2023 also happened to be the last day for the company to pay off a $40 million instalment on its its highest unrated loan.
This is, of course, only a part of Byju's problems which range from bad press to a growth slump and a lot more. To say that Byju's is in a precarious position right now would be an understatement. The question to ask is: will it sink or swim?
There is one tiny glimmer of hope.
Tune in to find out.
Recommended reading: Byju’s is looking like a hedge fund
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribefor more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
When the govt launched Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), the idea was to build the world largest e-commerce platform to check the monopoly of giants like Amazon and Flipkart. You could think of ONDC as the UPI of e-commerce. From ride-sharing and food delivery, to groceries, the platform can be used to buy and sell anything.
Lately, ONDC has been doing some interesting things with pricing. For example, someone ordered food on it for a price that was 45% lower than Swiggy. This, obviously, got thinking. Could ONDC kill the likes of Swiggy and Zomato and others?
While there is no exact answer to that because of a bunch of factors, what made us more curious was this: Do we want ONDC to win? And if it does then what could be the consequences?
Tune in to find out.
Recommended reading: Why everyone wants a piece of India’s open e-commerce platform
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribefor more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.