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DisneyUTV Digital appoints Paul Joseph Wrider as Director Game Designing
MUMBAI: DisneyUTV Digital has appointed Paul Joseph Wrider, an old hand in the global gaming industry with 10 years of experience, as Director – Game Design for its gaming business in India.
Based out of Mumbai, Paul will lead the Game Design team and will be responsible for developing new IPs.
Before joining DisneyUTV Digital, Paul was the lead game designer at FunMobility, Inc. the social mobile entertainment company based in United States of America.
Paul has worked with top gaming companies like Digital Chocolate, Storm8 and Zynga where he successfully launched the first Facebook based, fully 3D Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game, ‘Guild of Heroes’, and worked on other popular titles like Mafia Wars and Vampires.
DisneyUTV MD – Digital Vishal Gondal said, “DisneyUTV Digital is happy to have Paul Wrider onboard. We believe in leveraging technology to provide our users with engaging content to enhance their digital experience and we are constantly exploring new opportunities to build on that legacy. With Paul’s extensive experience and knowledge in game designing and the global gaming industry overall we will be able to develop new gaming IPs and add to our existing popular titles across mobile platforms.”
It was in August that DisneyUTV had consolidated its digital business by bringing all its digital assets in India under a new arm, DisneyUTV Digital. The digital division was to be spearheaded by Vishal Gondal and Samir Bangara. However, Bangara had earlier this month quit the organisation.
Incidentally, both Gondal and Bangara were appointed as managing director of DisneyUTV Digital to drive the company’s future growth. The new division was given the remit to develop and manage all content and brands from Disney, Marvel and UTV Bindass, as well as original content and games.
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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.
