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UTV to bring SponsoredTweets.com platform to India
MUMBAI: UTV has partnered with IZEA Holdings Inc to bring IZEA‘s SponsoredTweets.com platform to India.
UTV will leverage the platform to connect advertisers with IZEA‘s international celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Diddy, and Nick Cannon as well as create new monetisation opportunities for the estimated 12 million Twitter users in India.
UTV‘s roster of Indian celebrities, including Lara Dutta, Mahesh Bhupati, Anurag Kashyap, Rohan Bopanna and Neetu Chandra, will join the site and soon be available for potential Twitter sponsorship opportunities.
IZEA CEO Ted Murphy, “Our goal is to provide sponsorship opportunities to advertisers and social media publishers around the world. I am incredibly excited about our partnership with UTV because IZEA‘s technology coupled with UTV‘s expansive reach and celebrity roster offers advertisers an incredible untapped channel and opens up a new market for our company.”
Social media continues to see global growth with 1.5 billion visits to social networks per day. From 2010 to 2011 there was an 18 per cent increase in Fortune Global 100 companies using Twitter. The largest growth was in Asia-Pacific corporate Twitter accounts, a 68 per cent year-over-year increase.
UTV SVP Interactive Sameer Pitalwalla said, “In just six months, UTV‘s ability to monetise digital rights for celebrities has become unparalleled across platforms, be it via voice, video, web and now social media. IZEA‘s SponsoredTweets.com is the ideal platform for advertisers, celebrities and users to connect and capitalize on their Twitter presence.”
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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.
