iWorld
Vodafone Idea rolls out an ad-tech platform for the advertisers to connect
Mumbai: Digital revolution in India has led to innovation and significant growth in the ad-tech industry, thereby, also increasing the volume of investments in the industry. Generating content and programmatic media buying on customized platforms will be the new normal. As the Digital Adex juggernaut moves ahead unabated, Vi aims to participate as a major player in the multibillion-dollar Indian advertising industry. With this, India’s leading telecom operator Vi on Wednesday announced the launch of its world-class ‘Ad-Tech’ platform – Vi Ads – an Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) driven Adtech platform. It gives marketers a programmatic media buying platform that is cutting edge and returns on investment (ROI) focused.
Riding on Vi’s deep data science technology, Vi Ads will enable marketers to engage with the operator’s over 243 million subscribers through multiple channels like Vi owned digital media – Vi App, Vi Movies & TV App, and traditional channels like SMS, IVR calls. One of the key differentiators of Vi Ads is that it will be media agnostic and empower marketers to engage with Vi users on external media channels and publisher partners of Vi Ads.
Additionally, Vi Ads will offer a self-serve interface enabling marketers with full control of their campaigns from a campaign set up, tracking campaign performance to driving campaign insights. Since Vi Ads is built to achieve a full-funnel campaign objective, be it awareness, consideration or purchase – it caters to advertisers looking to drive reach, generate leads or drive sales. The combination of advanced features and ease of execution will appeal to large agencies and SMEs alike.
In the last 10 years, Digital AdEx has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 27 per cent. Even during the pandemic, when all other media saw a decline, Digital AdEx witnessed significant growth. Programmatic media buying has firmly taken root in India and its share has been increasing year on year, now standing at 42 per cent, as per Madison Advertising Report 2022.
Commenting on the launch of Vi Ads, Vi CMO Avneesh Khosla said “With our programmatic platform – Vi Ads, we will address two of the biggest challenges faced by marketers today – authentic insights and enhanced reach. Firstly, it offers marketers the benefits of unique audience segments, interest groups and targeting parameters derived using Vi’s deep insights of our consumers built on opt-in data. Secondly, it allows advertisers to not only reach their chosen audiences over Vi’s own digital media like Vi app and Vi movies & TV app, but also on external third party programmatic media and traditional channels of SMS & IVR calls. This is a simple, easy to use and highly efficient solution for marketers to effectively reach out to the right target group with the most relevant messaging at any given point of time, while also providing a monetization opportunity to Vi as we aggressively build and scale our digital assets.”
The Vi Ads platform has been built in partnership with TorcAi, a global provider of audience infrastructure and programmatic solutions, leverages advanced data sciences & machine learning to stitch together legacy marketing & advertising technology platforms with new breed tech. TorcAi helps media value chain stakeholders to build and nurture audience assets by bringing together data and activation channels at the organizational level.
TorcAi Digital CEO Rohit Verma said, “This partnership, and the development of the Vi Ads platform, will enable Vi to connect their vast stores of customer insights with advertisers, and publishers, to deliver the right message, at the perfect time. We look forward to a long relationship with Vi and welcome the opportunity to deliver world-class products and technologies that will continue to revolutionize the way data is used to better engage with consumers across an ever-evolving digital backdrop.”
iWorld
X launches XChat messaging app on iOS with calls and encryption
Standalone app marks shift from “everything app” vision, adds E2E messaging.
MUMBAI: From one big app to many small chats, X seems to be splitting its ambitions. X has rolled out its standalone messaging app, XChat, to iOS users, opening up a new front in its evolving product strategy. The app allows users to connect with existing X contacts through private and group messages, file sharing, as well as audio and video calls. The launch follows a limited beta phase, where the platform tested the product with a smaller user base to refine the experience. Now available publicly, XChat marks a notable pivot from earlier ambitions championed by Elon Musk to turn X into a single “everything app” combining messaging, payments, commerce and more.
Instead, the company under xAI ownership and backed by SpaceX appears to be building a suite of standalone applications, each targeting specific use cases while expanding its broader ecosystem.
At launch, XChat includes end-to-end encrypted messaging, PIN-based access, disappearing messages, and features such as message editing, deletion for all participants, and screenshot blocking. The company has also said the app is free from advertisements and tracking mechanisms, positioning it as a privacy-first alternative in a crowded messaging space.
However, security claims around the platform are likely to face scrutiny. Earlier iterations of XChat drew criticism from experts who argued it fell short of established encrypted platforms like Signal. With the wider rollout, the app is expected to undergo fresh evaluation to assess whether those concerns have been addressed.
Beyond messaging, XChat will also house X’s Communities feature, which is being discontinued on the main platform due to low usage and spam concerns. Migrating these users could provide an early boost to adoption, effectively turning XChat into both a communication and community hub.
The move underscores a broader recalibration at X less about cramming everything into one app, and more about spreading bets across multiple touchpoints, one message at a time.
