Amazon announced plans to roll out the voice shopping experience feature in Hindi language in the South Asian market ahead of the Diwali festival in early November. Only 10% of India’s 1.3 billion people speak English. In recent years, voice search has dramatically surged in India as many new internet users find it difficult to type on virtual keyboards.
Staying positive, let’s look at alternatives to Big Tech-based online media. One growing channel is retailer-based media networks, which Catalina is nurturing with a bundle of products and services that make them easier for retailers to deploy. Anther is the audio advertising, which iHeartMedia subsidiary Triton Digital is supporting with a marketplace, due early next year, that will aggregate 100 billion monthly impressions across broadcast radio, podcast, and streaming audio.
The used car market is getting another major infusion of venture capital with one of the faster scaling startups out of India picking up a major round of financing to double down on growth. Cars24 — a site and app that sells users cars and used two-wheeled motorbikes — has raised $450 million, a Series F of $340 million and $110 million in debt. The investment values Cars24 at $1.84 billion post-money, the company said, making it one of the more valuable privately-held used car startups globally.
Tealium has launched a suite of solutions aimed at powering AI models with rich, filtered and consented data. Tealium for AI uses existing Tealium features to support AI applications with specialized integrations, partnerships, configurations, and attributes.