Raj Grover

A shocking 52 of the top 53 Indian apps (21 billion downloads) have been found to engage in deceptive marketing practices as per the report published by the #AdvertisingStandardsCouncilofIndia. Among all apps, #healthtech apps were found to have the highest usage of #darkpatterns (8.8 per app), followed by #travelbooking (7.2 per app) and #fintech (5.3 per app). As many as 75 per cent all Indian health-tech apps relied on creating #timebasedpressure (false urgency) to rush users into making decisions. It will be interesting to see how the Indian government #departmentofconsumeraffairs enforces its own guidelines and holds businesses accountable on #misleadingadvertisements and #unfairtradepractices While the ASCI report does not explicitly name the offending apps, the list of Apps analysed by ASCI has been made public - Cab Booking: Ola, Uber, inDrive, Rapido - Delivery & Logistics: Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo, Zepto, Borzo, BlinkIt, Porter - Ecommerce: Big Basket, Nike, Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Ajit, Tira, Tata Cliq, Meesho - Streaming: Prime Video, Netflix, Disney Hotstar, YouTube, JioCinema - Service & Fintech: Paytm, Cred, PhonePe, Groww, Zerodha - Travel Booking: Agoda, Goibibo, EaseMyTrip, Yatra, Makemytrip, Cleartrip, Redbus, Bookingcom - EdTech: Vedanta, UpGrad, Byju’s, Unacademy, Physicswallah - Gaming: Dream11, Subway Surfers, Teen Patti Gold, Candy Crush, Ludo King - Health-Tech: Tata 1mg, Curefit, PharmEasy, HealthifyMe, Practo

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▶️▶️▶️YouTube Shorts has trillions of views, and that's just in India alone! YouTube overall is the most watched streaming service on cTVs and our views on connected TVs have quadrupled in the last 3 years (Neal Mohan- opening remarks, Brandcast India, August 2024). Why is this important and what impact does it make to the rest of the world? Simple: YouTube Shorts were first launched in India, have proven successful and have since taken over the world. And now, we’ve launched AI tools that empower human creativity: rolling out Dream Screen in India first, and soon to the rest of the world! (Dream Screen lets you create AI-generated backgrounds for Shorts just by typing an idea. Just awesome!!)

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Food for thought, who is the real beneficiary ? Should nations need to take into consideration the future impact of their economy and the consumers? When a global e-commerce giant entered the small nation of Meridia, the effects were swift and profound. Local businesses, like Anwar’s beloved furniture shop, struggled to compete with the giant’s low prices and fast delivery, leading to closures and job losses. While the government had hoped for economic growth, most of the profits were funneled out of the country, draining resources that could have supported public services. Meanwhile, the giant’s operations challenged local regulations, creating concerns over data privacy and worker rights. Meridia was left grappling with how to protect its economy while embracing the global marketplace.

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