Applications
Visa introduces Fifa WC Facebook app
MUMBAI: Credit card major Visa which is a partner of soccer‘s governing body Fifa has announced the launch of the Visa Match Planner, a social media application that allows users to create Fifa World Cup viewing schedules to share with friends via social networking channels such as Facebook.
The Visa Match Planner is the latest extension of Visa’s first-ever global Fifa-themed marketing campaign, Go Fans, which also includes print, television and out-of-home advertising, host market merchant activation programs and usage promotions.
The new application will be available in English, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese, and will be customised for each of the 32 qualified countries. In addition to building a customised Fifa World Cup match viewing schedule, the application also lets users organise match viewing parties, chat with friends, track scores and standings, and obtain exclusive offers from merchants such as the Fifa official store on Fifa.com.
Visa CMO Antonio Lucio says, “Football fans are undeniably passionate about the Fifa World Cup and the teams they follow and social media provides a unique platform to help them express their views and connect with friends from around the world.
“Through social media extensions of the Go Fans campaign, like the Visa Match Planner, Visa is able to strengthen our connection to the Fifa World Cup and enhance every fan’s World Cup experience with engaging content”
First debuted in Latin America in 2009 and later introduced globally in February 2010, the Go Fans campaign celebrates the common love that all fans have for football with creative executions, featuring the colors of the national flags of each of the 32 qualified countries, symbolising the expression of each fan’s true colors and love of country. The campaign reinforces the ways that Visa enables fans to express their true colors in support of their teams by offering an easier way to pay, their Visa card.
Go Fans was developed to connect with football fans worldwide to drive preference for and usage of Visa products, promote Visa’s association with the 2010 FIFA World Cup South AfricaTM and reinforce the ways in which Visa enhances the fan’s FIFA World CupTM experience.
The company claims that today, more than 90 markets throughout the world are activating Visa Fifa-themed marketing programmes with more than 500 financial institutions and merchants via advertising, customized promotions and the development of marketing collateral (POS, signage and direct mail).
Applications
Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
