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YouTube helps 83.3% Indians to discover new brands: Criteo Research
MUMBAI: The online shopping market in India holds tremendous potential as it has some of the largest consumer segments across each e-commerce category, and it is focused on innovation, research and development, making it one of the leading e-commerce markets in the world. Advertising and technological advancements have led to better personalised experiences as it allows the communication of hyper-personalised messages that resonate with the target customer. In light of this, Criteo, the advertising platform for the open Internet, unveiled the survey report titled ‘Why We Buy’. The survey was conducted across 10 countries, with over 10,000 respondents split almost evenly over all countries. The report in respect of India highlights that 90 per cent of Indian consumers are willing to consider a new brand across all the shopping/product categories, which is the highest compared with consumers from the other countries surveyed.
The report for India also throws light on various aspects such as brand values; more than one in four shoppers said they stopped shopping with a brand whose values weren’t aligned with their personal beliefs. Loyalty depends on more than just low prices- while respondents in the study did appreciate value for money, customer service was the most important consideration, followed by product selection and what the brand stands for. The report also gave us insights into how consumers discover brands, with omnichannel discovery on YouTube, Facebook and websites as the top channels – but they were far from being the only source. Relevance makes a difference: 66 per cent of Indians like that online ads can help them in discovering new products, while 57 per cent like online ads for reminding them of products they’re interested in, and 51 per cent like that online ads offer discounts for products.
Sharing his thoughts on the outcomes from the report, Criteo India managing director Siddharth Dabhade said, “It has been phenomenal to witness the Indian consumer behaviour and we are glad to share this on a larger platform for the benefit of the Indian advertising industry which has evolved from being a small-scaled business to a full-fledged industry. It has been phenomenal to witness the advancements of technological innovation in advertising over the years. The shift of ad spending from traditional to digital media is happening at a rapid pace. The advertising and marketing sector in India is expected to enjoy a good run. Growth is expected in retail advertisement, on the back of factors such as several players entering the food and beverages segment, e-commerce gaining more popularity in the country, and domestic companies testing out the waters.”
Other key insights revealed that 49.4 per cent of Indian survey participants stopped shopping from a brand that they were loyal to before because of poor customer service; 83.3 per cent said YouTube helps them most to discover new brands; 60.9 per cent would try a new brand for the first time because it provides a discount that is personalized and relevant, and this also appears to be the best way to gain customer loyalty; 44.4 per cent strongly agree that their purchasing decision is affected by a company’s mission/values; customer service is still key as it is the main reason for remaining with a brand (62.3 per cent), or for leaving if customer service is poor (49.4 per cent); consumers are least loyal to Groceries brands, and are most loyal to Jewelry & Luxury Goods.
MAM
Reliance-Meta AI JV names Parminder Singh as CEO
REIL, backed 70 per cent by Reliance and 30 per cent by Meta, targets enterprise AI scale.
MUMBAI: India’s AI ambitions just found their chief navigator and the roadmap looks anything but small. Reliance Enterprise Intelligence Limited (REIL), the enterprise AI joint venture between Reliance Industries Limited (70 per cent) and Meta Platforms (30 per cent), has appointed Parminder Singh as its founding Chief Executive Officer, signalling a serious push to scale artificial intelligence adoption across Indian businesses.
The mandate is ambitious: fuse Meta’s AI capabilities with Reliance’s enterprise reach, AI compute infrastructure, and the nationwide connectivity of Jio to build a full-stack enterprise AI ecosystem. In simpler terms, REIL is positioning itself as both the engine and the highway for India’s AI journey.
Singh brings a heavyweight résumé to the role, with leadership stints across Google, Apple, Twitter, and IBM. His experience spans large-scale digital transformations across Asia-Pacific, most notably at Mediacorp, where he led an AI-driven overhaul as Chief Commercial and Digital Officer.
More recently, he co-founded Clayboxai, an advisory firm focused on building AI fluency within organisations, and Wekamp, an AI-powered community platform currently in pilot both signalling his continued focus on practical, enterprise-led AI adoption.
The appointment comes at a moment when India’s AI narrative is shifting from experimentation to execution. Akash Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm, described enterprise AI as a “generational opportunity”, noting that Singh’s mix of global expertise and regional understanding makes him central to REIL’s next phase.
For Singh, the decision appears equally deliberate. A conversation with Ambani during a trip to New Zealand, he said, framed the opportunity as one that could shape the future of enterprise AI in India, a proposition difficult to ignore.
At its core, REIL is betting on a gap in the market, enterprises need not just cutting-edge technology, but a partner that understands local business realities. With Reliance’s scale and Meta’s AI backbone, the venture is positioning itself as that bridge.
If execution matches ambition, this is less about launching another tech venture and more about laying the groundwork for how Indian enterprises think, build, and scale with AI in the years ahead.
