Applications
Buying on TimesDeal.com now free of cost
MUMBAI: TimesDeal.com will begin offering its deals free of cost. It has traditionally charged users for 20-40 per cent of the deal value upfront.
With this move, the buying portal from Times Internet, is disrupting its business model.
TimesDeal has traditionally operated with a similar revenue model to competitors such as Snapdeal, who charge an upfront amount to purchase a deal. TimesDeal will no longer charge consumers for its deals.
TimesDeal made this decision after some learnings, some purposeful and some accidental. In February, TimesDeal ran a Valentine‘s Day promotion and for the promotion all deals were made free. As a result, there was a 10 times increase in consumption. This drove the internal conviction for a free product, the company said.
Times Internet CEO Satyan Gajwani said, “After the Valentine‘s Day‘s free promotion, we knew we had tapped into some significant, latent demand in the market for free deals. We started working on the free product immediately after that. Last week, a promotional code was accidentally released and it spread on the Internet. TimesDeal experienced over 100,000 transactions, a dramatic increase in deal consumption before the code was withdrawn. While TimesDeal lost revenues from the mistake, it helped further validate our belief in a free deals platform just as we were about to launch it.”
TimesDeal aims to focus more intensely on the discovery of deals, which will make the process of consuming a deal “faster” and “simpler” and also allow users to avail more targeted and personalised options of their interest.
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.
