Facebook data breach giving you panic attacks? Here are some desi options

Amid data breach talks and the recent instance of Cambridge Analytica scandal, where unauthorised access to user data apparently caused election meddling, there have been calls to delete Facebook.

Business News : After the scandal broke, there has been a growing scepticism around safety of personal data on social media. There was a frenzy among netizens to delete their social media account in order to protect their personal information.

The safety of your personal information cannot be guaranteed, but if you are looking for some ‘desi’ alternatives to Facebook, here is a list:

Hike

Hike Messenger is a cross-platform instant messaging service that provides users with a platform for text messaging, sending each other graphical stickers, emoticons, images, videos, audios, documents, voice messages, contacts and users’ location. The app can also be used to book Ola vehicles directly and has also enabled Hike ID, through which users can chat with each other without sharing their mobile numbers.

Roposo

Roposo is an app that offers filters and editing tools, and an option for social media sharing that allows users to instantly publish pictures on other social media channels.

The camera in the app helps edit and stitch videos to perfection; reducing the editing time. And users get to edit the videos on their phone itself. With the introduction of augmented reality feature on the app, users can create better content and post it on the platform.

Sharechat

Backed by SAIF Partners and Xiaomi, Sharechat is a leading social networking platform in India which enables users to watch and share videos on other platforms as well. Available in 14 vernacular languages, Sharechat is meant for all the users who love to share videos and photos in their own regional language.

SyncYu

SyncYu is an Indian pro-social networking application which focuses on connecting with friends and family by providing a spam-free platform. It is advertisement-free and claims to show how its users truly are to the world. This app comes with a lot of features like messaging, games, shoutouts, wordsmash, news and much more.

Mooshak

An attempt to make Hindi and Devnagiri relevant for the Next Gen, this app enables users to post content in Hindi. For the users who are not quite good at writing in the language, the app helps to translate your content into Hindi. Simply upload images, videos and audios and share it with people around the globe.

For the unversed, Cambridge Analytica, the political data firm with ties to United States President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign, is under fire for allegedly gaining access to private information of more than 50 million Facebook users, and influencing elections by using this stolen data.

Full Updates on  → Facebook Data Breach

Flipkart grows user base to 100 million

Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce marketplace, says it has expanded its consumer base by 33 per cent in the past six months to 100-million registered users, despite stiff competition by global rival Amazon, which has committed a massive $5 billion to capture the India market.

Flipkart says its 100-million registered user milestone represents 63 per cent of all broadband Internet subscribers in the country and that it is the first company to reach this milestone outside the US or China. It had announced breaching the 75-million user milestone in March this year. The figures exclude users of Myntra and Jabong, its fashion units that have a higher proportion of younger users.

In August last year, Alibaba-backed digital payments company Paytm had announced it had crossed the 100-million user mark.

“Since the time we sold the first book to our first customer in 2007 till today, our journey has always been about providing a superior shopping experience to our customers. This milestone has further energised us to ramp up our efforts and build a world-class shopping destination,” said Binny Bansal, co-founder and chief executive officer of Flipkart, in a statement.

This growth in users comes at a time of slower sales in India’s e-commerce market. It is estimated that online sales fell 19 per cent in the January-March 2016 quarter, while sales during the read full story

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THE 100-MILLION USER CLUB

Paytm: 125 million; crossed 100 million last August

Hike: 100 million

Facebook: 150 million; crossed 100 million in June 2015

Snapdeal: Has a current user base of 110-million plus, across Snapdeal and Freecharge platform