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Walt Disney attempts to turnaround digital biz, overhauls Disney.com
MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Company has re-designed its website Disney.com for the third time in five years as it looks to turnaround its digital business.
The re-designed Disney.com comprises games, children’s books, TV, movies, music, Broadway and online worlds like Club Penguin in order to cater to a broad audience.
The new site comes at a time when TWDC CEO Robert A. Iger is hoping that the gaming, mobile and Internet division will turn profitable after 15 consecutive quarters of $977 million losses.
Iger has told Disney shareholders that Disney Interactive will turn into profits sometime next year. The company is also planning an ambitious gaming initiative code-named Toy Box.
Figuring out the Internet as being critical for all media companies, Disney’s future in particular depends on a winning strategy, says a New York Times report.
“The children it hopes to turn into lifelong consumers of its products are increasingly living online. Disney Channel used to be the company’s most important welcome mat. Now executives refer to Disney.com as the “front door.”,” the report added.
Guiding Disney on its digital business was none other than tech czar and former Apple CEO Steve Jobs who was on its board from 2006 until his death last year.
Disney Interactive is run by former Yahoo executive James Pitaro and John Pleasants, Playdom’s former chief executive. Its current board members include John S. Chen, chief executive of the software developer Sybase, and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer.
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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.
