Flipkart teases Nexus 6P in India

Flipkart has started teasing the Nexus 6P on its website. A new page lists all the new features of the phone but does not mention the price and only says 'Coming Soon' for release date.

Then again, we already know the price, thanks to the Google Store. As we previously reported, the Nexus 6P in India will be priced at INR 39,999 for the 32GB mode, INR 42,999 for the 64GB model, and INR 47,999 for the 128GB model.

Flipkart hasn't mentioned the Nexus 5X yet, even though the phone is listed on the Google Store.

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Indian Companies Pull Out of Facebook’s Internet.org Amid Battle Over Net Neutrality

A battle over net neutrality is brewing in India, where fewer than one in six is connected to the Internet. 

 

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A viral crusade to keep the Internet equally accessible to all users has won the backing of some of the country’s biggest online companies, which late Wednesday pulled out of a partnership with Facebook’s Internet.org over fears it could allow telecom operators to choose which web applications users can access and how fast.

After a week of aggressive lobbying by campaigners for net neutrality – the principle that all traffic on the Internet should be treated equally — three Indian websites pulled out of Internet.org, which provides free access to certain web services for those on a particular plan.

Travel website Cleartrip.com, news channel NDTV and mobile app Newshunt, pulled content from Internet.org, which Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg brought to India in February in a tie up with Reliance Communications.

The Times Group, owner of the Times of India, also pulled TimesJobs and Maharashtra Times from the platform and said it would withdraw Times of India content only if its direct competitors agreed to do so.

Internet.org attempts to aid emerging economies by making Web access more affordable, use data more efficiently and help business drive access to more users.

“What started off with providing a simple search service has us now concerned with influencing customer decision-making by forcing options on them, something that is against our core DNA,” Cleartrip said Wednesday.

In an opinion piece published in two Indian newspapers Thursday in response to the withdrawals, Mr. Zuckerberg said “to give more people access to the internet, it is useful to offer some services for free.”

The principles of net neutrality and universal connectivity “can and must coexist,” Zuckerberg added. Internet.org does not “block or throttle any other services, or create fast lanes,” he wrote, adding that Facebook supports net neutrality. “We want to keep the Internet open.”

The moves came after e-commerce giant Flipkart announced that it was “walking away from the ongoing discussion with Airtel” for Airtel Zero, a platform that offers customers Internet services for free and charges companies a fee to be on it.

Airtel launched the platform last week, describing it as a non-discriminatory marketing tool for app developers in India. In a statement Wednesday, Airtel said it “fully supports the concept of Net Neutrality.”

Fewer than one in six Indians is connected to the Internet, but Indian cyberspace has been filled with arguments in favor of keeping access to it equal since the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued a consultation paper late last month on possible changes to the existing Internet regulatory framework.

The paper titled “Regulatory Framework for Over-the-top (OTT) services,” is seeking public opinion until Apr. 24, on whether telecom companies in India, like Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, should be allowed to charge consumers differently for using different websites and mobile applications. (Read the paper in full here and a condensed version here.)

One of the arguments by telecom companies for being able to do so is that new data-intensive applications, or so-called Over-the-top services like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Skype and Viber, require more and better infrastructure but don’t pay for it.

Telecom operators providing Internet services argue they are spending money developing infrastructure, on which those services are piggybacking. Opponents say differential pricing undermines net neutrality, a principle some countries, including the U.S., endorse. India’s e-governance division’s explanation of net neutrality is here.

The campaign to protect equal access to the Internet has picked up speed in recent days in India. On the site change.org, a petition aimed at gaining public support for net neutrality has gathered more than 200,000 signatures.

The website savetheinternet.in, which went live April 11, has seen more than half a million responses sent by its users to TRAI so far.

A short video explaining and campaigning for net neutrality by comedy collective “All India Bakchod” (“Bakchod” is a Hindi word that loosely translates as “trash talker.”), has more than two million views only five days after it was published on YouTube. The video was so widely shared that it temporarily crashed on Facebook- or in web parlance; it “broke Facebook.”

India’s federal Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, tweeted this on the issue earlier this month.

In another tweet, he said that the government had set up an independent committee to look into the debate.

TRAI is set to end its consultation process on May 8.

For breaking news, features and analysis from India, click here and follow WSJ India on Facebook.

Flipkart’s Move to Dump Mobile Site Could Hit Google

When visitors head to Flipkart’s mobile site, they are directed to the company’s app.

 

Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has decided it doesn’t need to rely on the Web to lure shoppers, dumping its mobile site and pushing visitors to its app. That move may spell trouble for the future of Google's cash-cow search engine, which relies heavily on links to shopping sites.

Smartphone users that go to the mobile websites of either Flipkart or its sister site Myntra no longer see the same virtual store shelves as when they visit those sites from a personal computer. Instead they see a message to download the sites’ mobile apps.

The problem for Google is that a large percentage of its ad business is driven by paid links that direct users to e-commerce sites. But mobile apps are walled gardens unto themselves, unconnected by links to the broader Web.

The more smartphone users get used to shopping inside mobile apps, instead of navigating to e-commerce sites via their phone’s browser, the less they need Google search to find what they want  to buy.

And the trend may be especially pronounced in emerging markets like India, which Google hopes will power future growth. Since many of those users may come online for the first time via smartphones rather than PCs they may be trained to use mobile apps more than the Web.

For Flipkart, mobile accounts for about 75% of traffic today, up from single digits a year ago, according to a spokeswoman.

When people use its app, they remain logged in, making checkout faster. Also Flipkart can connect with customers via push notifications.

“We are constantly experimenting with various aspects of our service to create the best shopping options and experience for our users, the Flipkart spokeswoman said.

Google is working to retrofit its search engine technology for mobile apps. It has a team that is working with companies to “index” the content of their apps and then using a technology called “deep links” to help connect the apps’ content to traditional search results.

Several sites have enabled indexing within their apps, including Walmart ,Yelp, Pinterest and Buzzfeed. But the entire process is slow-going. Google can’t simply unleash its search engine spiders to crawl and index apps the way it can with websites. And smartphone users must already have the apps installed for the deep links to work.

A Google spokesman said the company is working to add more features to search to help its users navigate apps.

Flipkart’s move also highlights why Google feels it needs to roll out more of its own “vertical” search sites like Google Shopping. Finding information in task-specific apps is proving easier and more effective in a number of categories, including travel, finance and local business information in addition to shopping. As that cuts into Google’s traffic, the company needs to offer its own users a simpler app-like experience that provides more of the information directly on its pages.

Flipkart itself has recently poached two prominent Google executives: Punit Soni a Google veteran since 2007, became Flipkart’s Chief Product Officer last month, and this week it hired Google Senior Director Peeyush Ranjan to be its head of engineering.

The change at Flipkart was earlier reported by Mint.