iWorld
coto’s Publisher Partner Program enables users to create, distribute & monetize content
Mumbai: coto, a social community platform for women built on the web3 principles of trust, transparency, and participative ownership, has announced its Publisher Partner Programme. It brings together publishers, experts, and creators across genres and platforms to create and monetise their communities.
coto explains that its Publisher Partner Programme aims to reshape the traditional content ecosystem of creation, distribution, and monetisation for publishers. Through the program, publishers can finally turn their current challenges of discovery, monetisation, and value-added services into the advantages of preferred partnerships, community engagement, and multi-monetisation models.
It added that the internet has created a wealth of opportunities for publishers to extend their market reach and cater to a more focused audience. Competing in an era of free content, most publishers walk a tightrope in expanding their network, enhancing revenue generation models, attracting the attention of the right audience, and at the same time, owning the brand-audience relationship. As the world transitions to web3, there remains a need for a multi-network online platform that can provide creators and brands with a wider content ecosystem that offers universal content access and incremental revenue opportunities. This is the gap that coto is looking to fill.
It will help collect the right mix of content, genres, and users on the platform that resonate with the brand’s ethos.
coto co-founder Aparna Acharekar said, “coto’s Publisher Partner Program endeavours to create a responsible social platform where authentic, verified information is available from credible experts. As we transition to the new era of the internet, there is a clear need and potential to create an ecosystem that helps the audience navigate through the vast amount of content online and, at the same time, captures growth opportunities that disrupt the sector. By adopting a community-driven approach, the programme incentivizes engagement, thus creating an ever-evolving diverse model of monetization. It will offer members, brands, publishers, and creators a truly universal experience of accessing content.”
Big FM COO Sunil Kumaran said, “Big FM stays committed to engaging its diverse audience with purpose-driven campaigns that entertain and inform with exceptional content, delivered in an impactful manner. Our thoughts align with coto, a women-only social community platform serving as a channel of change with content by women, for women. We are glad to associate with coto and are coming up with an exhaustive content line-up by our RJs covering multiple topics and industries. This convergence will create a new horizon of infotainment, exclusively on this trailblazing platform—coto.”
Spooler founder & CEO Binoy Joseph shared, “The internet has become the primary source of content and, therefore, has created a need for different revenue generation models for creators and publishers. coto’s publisher partner programme is built on the principles of participation, ownership, and micropreneurship for all women. Its monetisation opportunities such as social, live, and service commerce, advertising revenue, and merchandising give creators and publishers a perfect platform to begin the monetization journey. We look forward to growing our audience with a very distinct and discerning women audience base.”
iWorld
Meta opens Whatsapp to rival AI chatbots in Europe
Company allows access via Business API for 12 months to address EU antitrust concerns.
MUMBAI: Meta just cracked the door for rival AIs on Whatsapp because when regulators knock with antitrust gloves on, even the closed garden lets a few guests in. Meta Platforms will permit rival artificial intelligence chatbots to operate on Whatsapp in Europe for the next 12 months through the Whatsapp Business API, the company announced on 7 March 2026. The move comes in direct response to warnings from the European Commission, which last month signalled possible interim measures after rival complaints that Meta’s restrictions could cause “serious and irreparable harm” to competitors.
Meta had barred non-Meta AI chatbots from the platform on 15 January, limiting users to its own Meta AI assistant. The company will now charge a fee for rival AI services to access the Business API in Europe.
“For the next 12 months, we’ll support general purpose AI chatbots using the Whatsapp Business API in Europe in response to the European Commission’s regulatory process,” a Meta spokesperson said. “We believe that this removes the need for any immediate intervention as it gives the European Commission the time it needs to conclude its investigation.”
The European Commission confirmed it is reviewing whether the policy change impacts its assessment of potential interim measures and its ongoing antitrust probe into Meta.
The Interaction Company of California, developer of the Poke.com AI assistant and one of the complainants to EU and Italian regulators, criticised the proposal, though specific objections were not detailed.
The decision follows earlier action in Italy, where Meta allowed rival AI chatbots on Whatsapp in January after an order from the country’s antitrust authority. The Italian investigation continues.
A similar situation unfolded in Brazil, where Meta said the new policy will also apply after a court reinstated an injunction from the country’s antitrust authority that had been temporarily suspended in January.
Meta has long argued that hosting multiple chatbots strains its systems and that AI providers have alternative distribution channels, including app stores, search engines, email services, operating systems and partnerships.
In a regulatory landscape where closed platforms face growing scrutiny, Meta’s temporary opening isn’t just a concession, it’s a calculated pause, buying time to keep the conversation going while the competition knocks louder.
