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Fifa sees strong demand for online content during WC
MUMBAI: Multimedia platforms proved central to fans’ enjoyment of the recently concluded 2010 soccer World Cup as the game‘s governing body Fifa – through its web and Twitter feeds – successfully delivered a range of complementary digital experiences to football enthusiasts around the world.
In addition to the many millions of fans watching the matches on TV, over 220,000 people followed Fifa‘s official tweets on Twitter, while members of the five million-strong Fifa.com Club swapped 120 million virtual stickers and made over one million comments on the website as they debated the finer points of the tournament.
With its content and interactivity over the course of the tournament’s 31 days, Fifa.com attracted over 250 million visits – approximately 150 million unique users, triggering seven billion page views: 410 million of those page views were recorded in a single day. When England and the US played simultaneously, Fifa.com technicians reported a throughput of 1,000,000 hits per second at the height of the activity.
Fifa adds that the level of demand for its online content has surpassed expectations. Fifa.com welcomed three times more unique users than in 2006, serving pages to 150 million people over the course of the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Fifa exceeded forecasts for page impressions by 1.5 billion. The 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa has witnessed a new level of digital engagement from fans across the globe.
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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.
