MAM
GfK establishes integrated Social Media Analysis for marketers
MUMBAI: GfK has established consistent standards for their global and integrated Social Media Analysis (SMA) offer, a move aimed at addressing the need of marketers.
GfK‘s new offering leverages the company‘s global network to deliver flexible web content gathering and analyses in any language at market leading quality, the company said.
It also said that the local specifics of the web landscape are taken into account, and the bigger picture is derived by integrating SMA insights with other essential context specific information available to GfK, such as survey data or knowledge on purchase behaviour.
Dr. Ralph Wirth, a global innovation and digital specialist within GfK, said, “International marketing experts are often frustrated by the fact that there are hardly any truly global offerings in the field of social media analysis. This situation forces them to work with several different providers, which complicates the aggregation of results and the extraction of global insights.”
GfK piloted their new SMA standards in a recent “status quo” study, run in the People‘s Republic of China, identifying, collecting and analyzing the online buzz for four leading smart phone brands. The success of the methodology has established GfK‘s global standard for SMA analysis; delivering a unique, language-agnostic and fully scalable solution.
Wirth explains the idea behind conducting the study in China, “We chose China because it is the most challenging social media market available, combining strict regulations and a unique online landscape. Insights from our highly successful study have already been integrated into several ongoing projects in China. And we have proven that, by using human coders that are supported by automatic algorithms, we can deliver superior quality results and correct for nuances, such as irony and sarcasm – which is absolutely crucial for the way people talk online.”
GfK‘s global SMA standards are the product of numerous projects run across their global network, including a broad range of commercial projects, as well as various “research on research” studies.
Brands
Zscaler, Airtel launch India AI Cyber Research Centre
New hub to boost cyber resilience and trusted AI use
NEW DELHI: As India’s digital engine roars ahead, so do the risks riding shotgun. In response, Zscaler, Inc. and Bharti Airtel have joined hands to launch the AI and Cyber Threat Research Center – India, a national initiative aimed at strengthening the country’s cyber defences and accelerating responsible AI adoption.
The centre is designed as a multi stakeholder platform that brings together industry, government and academia. Its mission is clear: protect critical sectors such as telecom, banking and energy, shield everyday digital users, and future proof India’s fast expanding online ecosystem.
India has long been a major innovation hub for Zscaler, with a substantial portion of its cyber research talent based here. With this new centre, that footprint evolves into a national collaboration engine. The idea is simple but ambitious, build in India, for India, and help power the country’s journey towards a secure and digitally self reliant future.
The timing is telling. India is building digital systems at population scale, not just enterprise scale. That scale has widened the attack surface dramatically. At the same time, cyber criminals and nation state actors are deploying AI to scan, probe and exploit vulnerabilities in minutes.
Zscaler’s research arm, ThreatLabz India, reports millions of infiltration attempts every month. These include espionage campaigns linked to regional geopolitical tensions, 1.2 million intrusion attempts from 20,000 sources targeting 58 Indian digital entities, and a rise in zero day exploit attempts across multiple industries.
In such an environment, perimeter based security models are struggling to keep pace. The new centre aims to push a shift towards secure by design systems and Zero Trust architecture.
Its strategy rests on four pillars: protect through real time intelligence, remediate by working directly with government agencies, facilitate adoption of AI driven security and Zero Trust frameworks, and build a stronger cybersecurity talent pipeline through specialised certifications.
As founding members, Zscaler and Airtel will combine global threat intelligence with local network visibility. Zscaler will deploy a dedicated India focused research team and draw insights from its Zero Trust Exchange platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions worldwide. Airtel, meanwhile, will contribute deep visibility into IoT and mobile traffic, helping detect suspicious activity faster and coordinate response across the ecosystem.
Bharti Airtel executive vice chairman Gopal Vittal, said the partnership extends Airtel’s commitment to safeguarding customers and the nation’s digital fabric. He added that the collaboration would address challenges unique to the Indian market and encourage secure and confident digital engagement.
Zscaler chief executive, chairman and founder Jay Chaudhry, said India’s digital ambition cannot be secured with legacy firewalls and VPNs. He noted that a modern Zero Trust architecture is essential for a hyper connected world and that the new centre would harness the scale of Zscaler’s global security cloud while empowering a new generation of Indian cyber defenders.
Additional members from critical public and private sectors are expected to join the initiative in the coming months, expanding its scope and deepening collaboration.
In a world where threats travel at machine speed, India’s answer is to think faster, collaborate wider and build smarter.
