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BBC Worldwide Labs to mentor six digital startups this year
MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide Labs has announced the finalists for the second Labs programme which kicks off next month in London.
The six digital media start-ups are: Animal Vegetable Mineral, Oddizzi, Future Ad Labs, Social Spree, Peekabu Studios and The Backscratchers.
The selected start-ups are all at the point of commercialisation where BBC Worldwide Labs can play an important role in their further development and growth. The companies represent an array of emerging trends from the digital arena including: 3D gaming, animation, play captchas, gesture tracking, social media measurement tools and education.
Following in the footsteps of the first group of companies, the class of the year will be offered the opportunity to work within BBC Worldwide‘s London head quarters with support from teams across legal, sales and marketing, business development and technology, as well as access to mentors from within BBC Worldwide and the BBC and external mentors from companies such as Wayra, Facebook, General Assembly and Google. The programme will also include a number of bespoke networking sessions, development sessions and mentoring all focused on supporting the scaling up of the businesses and the possibility of securing commercial partnership either within BBC Worldwide or with other partners.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
