MAM
ZeeMelt: Bitcoin to be biggest disruptor, predicts Project X’s Nicholas Russel
MUMBAI: It’s the third year of disruptive marketing communication. Established companies had a hard time understanding why this model is a thing of the past. What it all comes down to is: that customers have become market-savvy forward-thinkers.
Startups are entering the game and are giving customers what they want. They are disrupting the industry and forcing incumbents to catch up or fall behind.
WATConsult CEO Rajiv Dingra said, “It’s very important to know what disruption is — it’s not an event, it is a process, and digital creates a lot of disruption — in many ways, like pricing and promotion.”
Talking about disruptive pricing, Project X founder Nicholas Russel said, “If we think about pricing contextually, disruptive pricing is jumping in the real world and starts acting like pricing online. The main concern is about cost price and value. Considering Apple as a brand, the cost of making is $211 and the price we get it from the market is around $550, which helps in reaching the margin to $399, i.e 60%.
Comparing Amazon with Walmart, the former pays 1/3rd of what Walmart pays for its retail stores.” Amazon retail online EB/EBITA ratio is 26.41.
Talking about what e-commerce (Amazon) can do which retail can’t, he said, “E-commerce can have discounted price as compared to retail stores. And, it may lower the price for the good conditioned used products.”
“Bitcoin is going to be the biggest disrupting things in the future which is not controlled by anyone, it is the market altogether. In future, it is possible that you won’t see the price tag on products — it will be available after you scan the barcode on the product,” Russel said.
Dingra added, “Amazon is not an e-commerce company — it has now become an ecosystem company.”
Lava business head & CMO Sunil Raina said, “Disrupting only happens through technological advancements. The challenges faced by Lava to be one of the best and trusted brands in industry are rapid tech changes, short product life cycle, transparent product, demonstration-based selling, different marketing, one brand mutiple channels, multiple pricing and the ever-evolving customer.
To acheive the goal, Lava and XOLO have busted many myths in the industry and the business model of Lava and XOLO are single-layer distribution followed by cash & carry. Keeping the quality in mind it stands on two pillars — first, the consistent product quality, and second, consistent great service. “For us, quality is not a trade-off for price,” Raina said.
Lava claimed to have the highest reach of 1,65,000 retailers with $2 billion annual global revenue. About competition, Rana added, “We are building our base for the last seven years, and after an year, we will be prepared to take on Vivo and Oppo.”
SapientRazorfish VP Saurabh Das said, “Service is basically — live up to your brand promise wherever and whenever customers come calling. A brand needs to accelerate innovation in the service experience to create greater value for customers — stay differentiated & monetise.”
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
