Applications
Enjoy music offline, thanks to Hungama PRO
MUMBAI: Various studies have highlighted the increase of smartphones and tablets in the country which in return has been a boon for the Indian telecom industries.
There are nearly 850 million mobile subscribes in the country according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and while the total mobile services market revenue in India currently is $ 29.8 billion, it can reach $37 billion by 2017.
Mobile accounts for 90 per cent of digital music consumption and 73 per cent internet penetration is fuelled by the proliferation of smartphones, there is an upswing in the digital consumption of media content in India.
With an aim to cash in on this digital wave Hungama Digital Media Entertainment has launched a PRO service for its mobile app which the company claims has grown exponentially. The service introduces a new feature, caching of content which has been developed specifically for markets like India.
The app was launched last year in April with over five and a half million installations.
What lead to the upgradation of the app is based on consumer feedback. The company believes that today people don’t just listen to music but watch it as well. Hence, with the PRO service Hungama has become one of the first platforms to offer integrated music video streaming on its app.
What is its USP? It allows content to be saved on the consumer’s device which can be accessed without an internet connection!
“For the first six to seven months of the Hungama app, we got constant feedback from the consumers with regards to high consumption of data on data packs. We realised that consumers are facing a lot of problems related to quality of connectivity and congestion at certain places which we have changed with the new version,” asserts Hungama Digital Media Entertainment COO Sidharth Roy.
On the basis of feedback, the company has also decided to make videos available online apart from just audio.
So if a customer upgrades to the premium version, he/she can encash on entire video streaming plus unlimited access to the audio and video from the offline cache.
Moreover, the price point has remained untouched. “The app was launched with the premium tag price of Rs 99 and Rs 110 on Google wallet price point. The price point today also remains the same. We have built the entire feature holding the same price point,” says Roy.
The service is ideal for consumers who rely on wi-fi connections to stream their content. The feature is aimed at helping consumers reduce the data usage for the same content, thereby encouraging them to increase their engagement with the platform.
The company is also providing free version to a customer where he can experience three songs offline and then move to the paid version. It also provides 30 days of free trial.
The feature is available on the Hungama app for iOS and Android versions.
Applications
With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
