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33K Participants from 18 countries advance to the Unstop World Cup Final
Mumbai: Unstop, the community engagement and hiring platform for students and graduates, has announced the finalists of its ‘World’s Biggest Cricket Quiz Festival’.
1 The quiz saw a total of 33,000 participants hailing from 18 countries, primarily India, the United States, and Bangladesh, vying for the prize pool of Rs 4,00,000.
2 Unstop conducted 45 daily quizzes throughout the tournament, with six questions for every player to ace.
3 The grand finale of the Unstop World Cup Cricket Quiz Festival will be conducted on 18 November, a day prior to the finale of the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.
4 The top six are Tushar Kanda from NIT Karnataka, Surathkal; Madhav Kedia; Pradhyumna R from PES University, Bengaluru; Preetham Upadhyay from Barclays; Abhishikth Boda from IIT, Sri City; and Saswata Panigrahi, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad.
The winner of the Grand Finale shall be crowned the World Cricket Quiz Champion and will take home a prize money of Rs 1,00,000, while the runner-ups receive Rs 50,000 and Rs 30,000 each. There are cash prizes for all other finalists along with Amazon Vouchers, a subscription to OTT Play for the top 100 players. All participants receive a subscription to Unstop Pro.
The finale will see Arun Lal, ex Indian cricketer and commentator, and Sresth Shah, editor, and journalist at ESPNcricinfo, as celebrity guest quiz masters posing questions to the finalists.
Unstop founder and CEO Ankit Aggarwal said, “Cricket is one game that brings together millions and we’ve been cheering for #Unstoppable Team India since day 1. This quiz was indeed a wonderful experience of giving our community of young talent a digital playground to showcase their best shots!”
Unstop VP marketing & growth Alekhya Chakrabarty added, “We felt it is natural to combine quizzing with the cricket world cup to come up with this competition for our community. The quiz saw stellar participation and I’m glad all participants could connect with their inner fan through it. Super excited for both the finals on 18 & 19 November.”
Reflecting on the experience, one of the finalists, Preetham Upadhyay said, “I used to look forward to the Unstop Cricket quiz at 6 PM, as much as the actual matches at 2 PM, and this had become a daily ritual over the last month all through the world cup. It was overall a fun and challenging experience as questions and scoring evolved through the festival.”
Tune in to watch the finale on 18 November at 4:30 PM on www.unstop.com and their Youtube channel Unstop_World. An exciting day when they’ll be playing the final innings with the top 6 and announcing the winners to present them with their much-deserved rewards!
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Uber launches hotel bookings feature in partnership with Expedia
From hotel bookings to room service at your door, the ride-hailing giant is making its boldest push yet into everyday life
CALIFORNIA: Uber is done being just a taxi app. At its annual GO-GET product event, the world’s leading mobility and delivery platform unveiled a sweeping set of new features designed to plant itself at the centre of how people travel, eat and shop, hotel bookings included.
The headline move is a partnership with Expedia Group that lets Uber users in the United States book hotels directly within the Uber app, with access to a catalogue that will eventually grow to more than 700,000 properties worldwide. Uber One members get 10 per cent back in Uber One credits on all hotel bookings and savings of at least 20 per cent on a rolling list of more than 10,000 hotels globally. Vacation rentals from Vrbo, Expedia Group’s home-rental brand, will be added later this year. The partnership is expected to expand beyond the United States. From June, Uber rides will also be integrated directly into the Expedia app, with push notifications sent to travellers ahead of hotel check-in to book discounted Uber rides for the duration of their stay.
Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of Uber, framed the expansion in terms of the modern condition. “Uber is becoming an app for everything, helping people go, get, and now travel all in one place,” he said. “We’re all living through a moment of real cognitive overload: too many apps, too many decisions, too much noise. At the end of the day, our job is to help people reclaim their time, spending less of it managing the logistics of life and more of it actually living.”
Ariane Gorin, chief executive of Expedia Group, struck a similarly ambitious note. “Travel should feel effortless, and this partnership gets us one step closer to offering a seamless traveller experience,” she said. “By connecting our two-sided marketplace with Uber, we’re bringing Uber rides directly into the Expedia app and Expedia Group’s lodging inventory into the Uber app through our Rapid API technology. Together, we’re helping travellers spend less time planning and more time enjoying the journey.”
Beyond hotels, the product announcements come thick and fast. Travel Mode, available within both the Uber and Uber Eats apps, offers curated recommendations on local favourites, tourist destinations, OpenTable restaurant reservations and on-demand delivery to hotel rooms. Uber One International means the membership programme now works globally, allowing members to earn credits on rides abroad that can be redeemed once back home. A new Shop for Me feature lets users request items from any store, even those not listed on the app. Eats for the Way allows riders in select cities booking an Uber Black or Uber Black SUV to have a drink or snack waiting for them in the car. Voice Bookings, powered by artificial intelligence, lets users book a ride conversationally, without touching their phone. And a redesigned One Search bar consolidates results for places, food and items across the entire Uber platform in a single query.
Uber has now logged more than 72 billion trips since it launched in 2010. The question it is now answering is what comes after the ride. The answer, apparently, is everything else. Whether users want a hotel in Paris, a coffee in the back of a car or a snake plant from the local garden centre, Uber would very much like to be the one to provide it. The app economy’s land grab has a new front-runner.
NOTE: The image used is AI generated and only for representational purposes.
