When we launched in 2016, tech and startups in India were already well covered by mainstream and niche publications. Only a few publications were vested in original reporting. The rest would spin the pieces, force an opinion, stuff it with keywords and push it out in a hurry. We steered clear of commodity news and noise. That gave us time and an opportunity to lead the news cycle in some cases. The last 6 months validated our view that fewer, impactful stories that aren’t already out there, will give you the same results as many smaller stories aggregated from other outlets. We will spend most of our time next year doing that.
However, in 2017, we will also aggregate from other sources, with minimal human effort to make sure that we cover the entire breadth of stories as technology goes mainstream in India. Here are some of our pieces that led the news cycle in 2016.
1. This story on paid campaigns to talk good about demonetisation caught the attention of many people.
Paid tweets: Twitter users offered money to praise demonetisation
2. Our exclusive interview with hacker group Legion added to the conversation around the recent high profile hacks.
3. We broke the story of Apple’s intention to setup stores in India. There have been twists and turns in the story, which we reported as well.
Apple Stores to open in Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai before end-2017
4. When we revealed, way back in July 2016, that Amazon was investing $300 million into creating original content for Prime Video in India. This was corroborated when Prime Video finally launched last week, with the company revealing the names of high-profile shows it is working on.
Amazon India will invest $300 million in original Indian content for Prime
5. Our interview with Bibop Gresta, the founder of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, laid to rest some of the speculation around the technology coming to India. While we rushed to cover the news, we also had a balanced take on it.
It’s confirmed: Hyperloop is in talks to run trials in India
6. Earlier this month, we wrote that Alibaba was in talks with Snapdeal to acquire a stake in the company, based on our sources. We’ll keep a tab on this story as it develops and bring you the latest when we hear from them.
PS: The thing about breaking news is that sometimes stories don’t pan out the way you first write it. Mistakes happen. As a responsible media outlet, we will make sure that we admit mistakes and continue to report diligently.
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Disclosure: FactorDaily is owned by SourceCode Media, which counts Accel Partners, Blume Ventures and Vijay Shekhar Sharma among its investors. Accel Partners is an early investor in Flipkart. Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the founder of Paytm. None of FactorDaily’s investors have any influence on its reporting about India’s technology and startup ecosystem.
