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History TV18 using social media to push ‘The Greatest Indian’ property
MUMBAI: Infotainment channel History TV18 is using social media media platforms Facebook and Twitter to push its local property, ‘The Greatest Indian‘. This allows viewers to vote for who they think is the greatest Indian since 1948 after Mahatma Gandhi.
History TV 18 GM marketing Sangeeta Aiyer notes that the plan was to go viral. “There are debates and discussions happening in the social media space. Our show will also stimulate discussions and debates. We launched TGI and TheGreatest Indian on the morning of 4 June before the show started airing in the night. This has helped us get three million votes so far in 10 days. By the time voting for the first phase closes on 25 June we expect to have gotten eight million votes”.
Twitter is important as that is where the influencers are. The fan club for Dr. Ambhedkar, for instance, has participated in a big manner.
“Marketers are nervous about using Twitter. But Twitter can be a powerful tool for marketers, if used wisely. We recently did a quiz on Twitter and we got 50,000 votes as a result. On Facebook we did an innovation on Facebook Timeline. We went back to 1947 and put in achievements of Indians,” Aiyer says.
The second phase will kick off in July. There will be a curtain raiser show where names will be revealed from where viewers can choose. The Greatest Indian winner will be revealed mid August to coincide with Independence Day.
Earlier, the channel kicked off a social media initiative on ‘History Har Din‘. People can upload photos and videos where they feel that they have made history on the site. So far 150 people have uploaded their photos.
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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.
