Applications
Digital magazine app Flipboard valued at $800 mn
MUMBAI: Flipboard, a magazine app for mobile devices, has been valued at $800 million after a round of funding raised $50 million from investors including Goldman Sachs and Rizvi Traverse Management.
The app first launched for iPads in 2010, but has since been downloaded by more than 85 million users on a range of Android and iOS devices. In the last six months its user base has grown, and it now reports nearly 200,000 new downloads each day.
Billing itself as a ‘personal magazine’, Flipboard provides users with the ability to search content from different online publications, as well as aggregating articles from links posted to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The app then formats this content to allow users to ‘flip’ through it or even create their own publications to share with friends. Celebrity users include Al Gore, who posts articles he has read and enjoyed, and Ashton Kutcher, who created a magazine about Steve Jobs prior to the release of his biopic Jobs profiling the Apple founder.
Platforms that aggregate content from other publications have seen increased interest from investors and are seen by some as an effective way to increase engagement with old media on the web and mobile devices.
However, others see their business model as a parasitic. McCue, who founded the app with former iPhone engineer Evan Doll, reports that around three million magazines have been created on the service and that the platform is expanding through desktop apps and new partnerships.
Publishing company Random House announced last week that it would be making two custom magazines for its readers; one concerning the extended universe of George R. R. Martin’s ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ books and another based around Margaret Atwood’s new ‘MaddAdam’ novel and curated by Atwood herself.
Applications
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.
