Applications
HomeShop18 revamps e-commerce portal
MUMBAI: HomeShop18 has revamped its site, www.homeshop18.com.
The relaunched ecommerce portal has been upgraded to offer a wider choice of products. Customers will be now able to choose from over 50,000 products in the first phase.
The real shift is in user functionality with the aim of making it easier to navigate with highly efficient search capabilities for a highly enjoyable shopping experience. While designing the new website, special attention has been paid to ensure that customers with slower Internet connections will have a good browsing experience.
The new site provides an enhanced gifting catalogue with offers and gifting ideas for birthdays, anniversaries and festival season. The products ordered from the website comes with multiple payment options (including cash on delivery) , 24X7 call center support, delivery to over 2800 locations and 15 days money back guarantee.
HomeShop18 CEO Sundeep Malhotra said, “We are now totally focussed on becoming the market leader in the ecommerce segment, like we are in the home shopping industry. The re-launch of the ecommerce portal is just the first step and we are going to aggressively enhance the portal to make it the most preferred shopping destination online.”
Last month, www.homeshop18.com was awarded for Brand Excellence in Internet business by CMO Asia. The portal has also been a recipient of the PC World “Best Shopping Website Award” in 2008.
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.
