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Yatra Online ties up with Hughes
BANGALORE: Yatra Online (YOPL) today announced that it has tied up with Hughes, a global player in providing broadband satellite networks and services. Through the alliance, Yatra’s travel related services including air tickets and Hotels/Packages will be made available via select HughesNet Fusion centers in the country. HugheNet Fusion Centers will act as extended retail points to offer Yatra.com’s travel services with an integrated offline cash acceptance model of Hughes. Customers who are more comfortable with an offline payment mode will be able to avail the services Yatra.com currently offers online. Through the tie up, Yatra.com hopes to enlarge its customer base by tapping customers who may be reluctant to use credit cards or do not have one. |
In the first phase, customers will be able to avail the services through 28 HughesNet Fusion centres across the country by paying cash. Other modes of payments like credit/ debit cards and ITZ cash cards will also be accepted. With this tie up, customers will have the ease to book from over 1500 hotels and resorts across 140 cities in India, and all domestic airlines with instant confirmations. For further convenience a special phone line has been set up for customers booking through Hughes centers in case they have any queries in regard to their bookings.
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During a telecom with Indiantelevison Dhruv revealed that HughesNet Fusion had come in as a franchisee. “Once the franchisee has the basic infrastructure in place, the Yatra team would come in and provide the products. All our inventory becomes accessible to someone who walks into a HugesNet Fusion Center. We are looking at tapping 40-50 per cent of our business from B and C class cities through the Hughes network.” YOPL’s present top line turnover is around Rs 350 million per month, informed Dhruv. The release also quotes Hughes director-marketing Vaibhav Magow, director-Marketing,Hughes, “HughesNet Fusion network of centers will help Yatra.com to at once Build Capacity and extend reach to more customers. With our network expansion plans this year we hope to be the largest Value Added partner for Yatra.com (Yatra Online Pvt. Ltd.). Customers can avail a complete range of services through our centers.The tie-up will offer greater accessibility of Yatra.com services to a larger section of the market and help satiate the growing appetite of travel by the Indian middle class.” |
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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.
