{"id":67042,"date":"2019-11-22T10:12:51","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T04:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/one\/?p=67042"},"modified":"2025-06-27T10:56:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T05:26:54","slug":"flipkart-ficci-ecommerce-workshops-paypal-acquisition-amazon-music-streaming-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/flipkart-ficci-ecommerce-workshops-paypal-acquisition-amazon-music-streaming-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Flipkart and FICCI to Conduct E-Commerce Workshops, PayPal Acquires Online Deal-Finding Company, Amazon\u2019s Music Streaming Service is Now Free and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flipkart and FICCI to Conduct E-Commerce Workshop Series for MSMEs; PayPal Acquires Online Deal-Finding Company for USD 4 billion; E-Commerce Sites Top List of Consumer Complaints in India; Shutterstock Offers Affordable Music Licensing for Content Creators; Amazon\u2019s Music Streaming Service is Now Free; Amazon Echo Will Now Play Spotify\u2019s Free Music Service; Apple Finally Enters the B2B Streaming Market; Streaming Service Mubi Launches in India; Frozen 2 Release Accompanied by Record 67 Brand Deals in India and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Flipkart and FICCI to Conduct E-Commerce Workshop Series for MSMEs<\/h3>\n

Flipkart, the e-commerce marketplace owned by American retail giant Walmart, has partnered with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) to launch a workshop series aimed at Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME). The workshops, to be conducted across India starting with Ahmedabad in November, will be themed \u2018Winning big with e-commerce\u2019, and will aim to help MSMEs understand the e-commerce industry, how it can help them, and how they can build their business and increase brand visibility. According to Flipkart, its representatives will address specific accounting and taxation issues, access to capital, how to identify new opportunities, the importance of brand building online, how to build and scale their brands, and supply chain management and inventory planning for e-commerce. These workshops will then move to other Indian cities, including Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Guwahati, and Nagpur.<\/p>\n

PayPal Acquires Online Deal-Finding Company for USD 4 billion<\/h3>\n

PayPal, the American online payment company, is acquiring Honey Science Corporation, a company that operates a deal-finding browser add-on and mobile application, for USD 4 billion, mostly cash. Honey, which has 17 million monthly active users, tracks sales and retailers\u2019 promo codes, provides consumers with the option to browse the best offers, and automatically selects the best cost-saving promo code while checking out on online shopping sites. The company also rolled out a price-tracking feature which informs shoppers of an item\u2019s price history. Honey\u2019s browser extension now works across approximately 30,000 websites, including fashion, technology, travel, and even pizza delivery sites. It claims that its users have saved a total of more than USD 2 billion till date.<\/p>\n

With this acquisition, PayPal will now gain a giant foothold in the online shopping market, featuring earlier in the consumer\u2019s shopping experience rather than just on the payment page, where it currently competes against credit cards or Apple Pay, for instance. PayPal has been facing increased competition from giants like Apple, Google, and Facebook, who have recently begun entering the payments market, apart from its traditional competitors in credit card companies.<\/p>\n

E-Commerce Sites Top List of Consumer Complaints in India<\/h3>\n

According to data from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, e-commerce companies topped the list of consumer complaints received on the government\u2019s national helpline, with one in every five complaints directed against an e-commerce company. The list was led by Flipkart, Reliance Jio, and Amazon. More than 100,000 of the 500,000 plus complaints were against e-commerce companies, with banks following with 41,600, and telecom garnering 29,400. A ministry official said that the increase in the number of complaints against e-commerce companies was likely due to the growth in their consumer base. Most of the complaints against the e-commerce companies pertained to spurious products, problems in exchange, and delayed delivery, while those against telecom companies were related to overbilling, data deduction, and connectivity problems.<\/p>\n

The government has responded to increasing dissatisfaction among consumers by shoring up its grievance redressal mechanism. The Ministry launched a mobile application where consumers could register their complaints, which would be redressed within 60 days. The government has also published draft e-commerce rules which focusses on e-commerce companies\u2019 obligations and mechanisms of grievance redressal. Another ministry official claimed that companies, however, were responding well to complaints\u2014of 565,000 complaints received last year, 555,000 were resolved, and a similar resolution rate is expected this year.<\/p>\n

Shutterstock Offers Affordable Music Licensing for Content Creators<\/h3>\n

Shutterstock, the American provider of stock photography, is expanding its offerings to include music. It has launched an unlimited music subscription plan for USD 149 per month, giving content creators and digital marketers access to more than 11,000 tracks that can be included in web-based content, like YouTube videos, podcasts, and conference presentations. The Shutterstock Music Library, which will be searchable by genre, mood, or popularity, has been curated by professional musicians, and hundreds of tracks will be added every month. According to Shutterstock, this is a cost-effective feature for marketers lacking the budget and resources to pursue high-end music productions, and \u201cfrees them to focus on the creative vision rather than worrying about budget\u201d.<\/p>\n

Amazon\u2019s Music Streaming Service is Now Free<\/h3>\n

Online retail giant Amazon is now offering its music streaming service free, with advertisements. While it previously offered free, ad-supported music streaming to owners of its smart device Echo, it is now expanding a 2 million song catalogue same to all customers. This is the same catalogue offered to those who have subscribed to Amazon\u2019s Prime membership, albeit with advertisements.<\/p>\n

This move won\u2019t ruffle any feathers among major music streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music, considering Amazon\u2019s music catalogue is much smaller, and is not supported by personalisation technology as advanced as what drives Spotify\u2019s Discover Weekly playlist, for instance. Amazon\u2019s move, instead, is aimed at making its Prime subscription more appealing to its consumers, encouraging them to subscribe to remove ads. Amazon\u2019s Prime subscription is one of the company\u2019s major focuses, as Prime members will shop more often from Amazon\u2019s e-commerce site, which is where its profits primarily lie.<\/p>\n

Amazon Echo Will Now Play Spotify\u2019s Free Music Service<\/h3>\n

Swedish-American music streaming provider Spotify, whose service previously worked with Amazon Echo only for premium subscribers, has now extended support on the smart device for its free tier users. Similar support will now also be available on smart speakers manufactured by American audio manufacturing company Bose and consumer electronics company Sonos. This news comes on the heels of Amazon\u2019s announcement that its own music service would become free across devices. Though Amazon\u2019s limited 2 million song catalogue doesn\u2019t make it much of a competitor to Spotify, which boasts of over 50 million songs as well as powerful personalisation capabilities, Spotify\u2019s stock dropped almost 5% following Amazon\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

Apple Finally Enters the B2B Streaming Market<\/h3>\n

Technology behemoth Apple has finally announced its much-anticipated move into the Business-to-Business (B2B) streaming market, with department store Harrods and clothing company Levi\u2019s already using Apple\u2019s music streaming service Apple Music in their stores. While regular Apple Music or Spotify subscriptions do not permit use on commercial premises, providing B2B streaming at additional costs has long seemed an obvious way for streaming services to generate extra revenue.<\/p>\n

Streaming services Pandora and Sirius already offer B2B services in the US, while there are companies like Mood Media and Playnetwork whose primary business is providing music to retail clients. Apple seemed to confirm its plans to enter the market when it registered trademarks for Apple Music for Business last year, and Spotify has demonstrated interest in retail-focussed Soundtrack Your Brand, which published a study in 2018 estimating that the music industry was missing out on revenues worth USD 2.65 billion per year by not exploiting B2B streaming to its fullest.<\/p>\n

Streaming Service Mubi Launches in India<\/h3>\n

12-year old movie streaming and rental service Mubi has launched in India. Unlike more well-known streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, Mubi\u2019s primary selling point is its selection of critically acclaimed movies. Mubi also maintains a stark difference from its larger competitors in the market by maintaining a small catalogue of just 30 movies at any given point, with every new title being accompanied by the exit of an existing one; no movie stays longer than 30 days on the platform. Founded in 2007, Mubi initial business plan mirrored that of services like Netflix. However, realising financial constraints, Mubi rerouted itself into its current form of offering a very limited selection, focussing on lesser-known critical gems.
\nHaving amassed 9 million subscribers worldwide, Mubi has launched in India at a much lower price point than in other countries\u2014much like other streaming services. It has also, for the first time, launched a dedicated channel for local movies. With access to both the local and global channels, Indian subscribers will have access to 60 movies. Mubi has appointed Academy Award-winning film producer Guneet Monga, of Gangs of Wasseypur<\/em>– and Lunchbox<\/em>-fame, as its content advisor.<\/p>\n

Frozen 2 Release Accompanied by Record 67 Brand Deals in India<\/h3>\n

The release of Frozen 2, Disney\u2019s sequel to its 2013 animated blockbuster, in India has been anteceded by a flurry of merchandising as Disney India has signed sponsorship deals with a record 67 brands, the highest such number for an animated movie in the country. These partnerships involve brands like toy retailer Hamleys, fashion brands Max and Reliance Trends, clothing chain Pantaloons, and e-commerce company Flipkart.<\/p>\n

A special Frozen collection has been launched by Pantaloons for young girls, which includes joggers, leggings, sweatshirts, sweater dresses, and footwear. Hasbro, the toy and board games company, will roll out a range of new dolls and playsets inspired by the two protagonists, Elsa and Anna, while multinational conglomerate ITC has launched a line of stationery products including notebooks, geometry boxes, and colouring sets based on the movie. Paint company Asian Paints has introduced a series of wall d\u00e9cor derived from the film, while Flipkart will be selling Frozen themed merchandise across categories. This amassing of deals is symptomatic of a trend of increasing localisation and marketing initiatives by Hollywood studios in India.<\/p>\n

Authored and compiled by\u00a0 Neharika Vhatkar (Associate, BananaIP Counsels) and Param Gupta\u00a0(Legal Intern)<\/strong>
\nThe Licensing and E-Commerce News Bulletin is brought to you jointly by the E-Commerce Law and Consulting\/Strategy Divisions of BananaIP Counsels, a Top IP Firm in India. If you have any questions, or need any clarifications, please write to\u00a0contact@bananaip.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0with the subject: Licensing News.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: Please note that the news bulletin has been put together from different sources, primary and secondary, and BananaIP\u2019s reporters may not have verified all the news published in the bulletin. You may write to\u00a0contact@bananaip.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0for corrections and take down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest bulletin explores Flipkart and FICCI\u2019s new MSME workshops, PayPal\u2019s strategic acquisition, and Amazon\u2019s free music streaming launch in India. It also analyses consumer complaint trends and new digital content initiatives in the Indian market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":10,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1046,6,22],"tags":[10687,10776,9875,2308,537,10775,3832,2301],"class_list":["post-67042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-commerce-law","category-intellectual-property","category-ip-commercialization-licensing","tag-amazon-music","tag-consumer-complaints","tag-e-commerce-india","tag-ficci","tag-flipkart","tag-honey-science","tag-music-streaming","tag-paypal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67042"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140428,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67042\/revisions\/140428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}