Brands
Instagram most preferred platform for influencer marketing: Report
MUMBAI: Around 70 per cent of brands, which participated in a survey done by Buzzoka – influencer marketing company, have bet on Instagram, a Facebook-owned photo-sharing app, as the best platform for influencer marketing in 2019, followed by LinkedIn & Tik Tok at 8 per cent each.
In its third edition of Influencer Marketing Outlook, Buzzoka surveyed over 500 brand custodians and content creators in December. The brand custodians included agency and brand folks across the Indian eco-system.
While 50 per cent of surveyed brands see influencer marketing as an important tool, at least 52 per cent of them believes that it gives better reach and engagement with audiences.
According to the report, the majority of brands look for the quality of content, influencer produces before finalising; with a maximum spend of $50,000 for each campaign in a year of a brand.
Over 30 per cent of surveyed brands believe influencer marketing has been the fastest growing online customer acquisition method.
Meanwhile, around 60 per cent of the brands believe that Instagrammers are the most effective in the influencer marketing system compare to other social media platforms.
Over 45 per cent of brands are of opinion that around 5-7 per cent of the overall budget is spent on influencer marketing in 2018. However, over 70 per cent of the brands are ready to increase the percentage spends in the influencer marketing budget in 2019.
Out of the surveyed brands, 50 per cent of them are okay with influencers disclosing the content they are putting is sponsored, whereas 50 per cent are not comfortable with revealing it.
Over 75 per cent of brands see ‘determining the ROI (return on investment) of my influencer marketing programs’ as one of the major challenges for influencer marketing in 2019.
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.
