MAM
Nipun Marya takes over as iQOO India CEO
Mumbai: Smartphone brand iQOO on Monday announced the appointment of Nipun Marya as chief executive officer for India. As iQQQ India CEO, Marya will be responsible for driving the growth of the brand and its operations in India as it focusses on growing its market share to cement its position in the premium performance smartphone segment, said the company in a statement.
According to a statement, iQQQ has witnessed a staggering growth of 671 per cent in Q3’21 vis-à-vis Q2’21 and it aims to double its online market share in the mid-premium space from five per cent to 10 per cent in India by 2022. Prior to iQOO, Marya worked with vivo India as director of brand strategy for the last five years.
“Nipun has successfully led vivo’ s expansion and brand evolution in the India market. His deep understanding and consistent focus on consumer understanding have helped vivo grow its brand strength and preference over the years,” stated vivo India CEO Jerome Chen. “We are delighted to see him assume charge as iQOO’s CEO and are confident he will play a pivotal role in cementing the brand’s position within the India market.”
Under the leadership of Marya, the company aims to accelerate the pace of innovation and address the demand of the ever-evolving consumers. Witnessing the dynamics of the Indian smartphone market, he will also focus on strengthening the premium and mid-premium portfolio for iQOO in India, said the statement.
“iQOO India is at an exciting juncture right now. Our smartphones like iQOO 7, Z5 and Z3 have been the highest-rated smartphones in their respective segments on Amazon. This inspires us to further strengthen our ambitions to bring a bold line of breakthrough innovations in future products,” said Nipun Marya. “I am looking forward to driving this next phase of growth for the brand and double the online market share in the mid-premium segment.”
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
