Dailyhunt is going global📰, Tiktok parent shuts game dev studio🎮, WhatsApp Pay💸

Dailyhunt launches in Middle East, North Africa, ByteDance shuts game development studio, Cashback drives surge in WhatsApp Pay, Funding Deals and more.

Jun 21, 2022

1 Mail | 2 Minutes | 3 Stories

Want this in your inbox?

Dailyhunt is going global by expanding into Middle East, North Africa markets📰

VerSe Innovation, which runs apps like news aggregator Dailyhunt and TikTok clone Josh, is expanding globally with the launch of Dailyhunt in the Middle East.

VerSe has rolled out Dailyhunt in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait. It is headquartered in Dubai. Dailyhunt has launched its business with over 5,000 content partners catering to the UAE market.

The local-language content platform will soon partner with news publishers, including MENA Newswire, Al Khaleej, The Brew, Chalk Media, Brandknew, KKompany, Mudgal Kreations, Buzzing, and Gulf Today, among others.

Share on WhatsApp

ByteDance shuts game development studio, lays off 100+ employees🎮

ByteDance has shut down a game development studio, laying off more than 100 employees.

ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, shut down the '101 Studio' in Shanghai it had acquired three years ago. "TikTok owner ByteDance is disbanding one of its main game studios due to its disappointing performance," Nikkei Asia reported.

The gaming studio had around 300 employees and according to the report, some of them have been transferred to other verticals within ByteDance. The development came as TikTok is reportedly planning to make a major push into gaming.

Hot Shorts⚡

FinBox, an embedded finance infrastructure provider, has raised $15 million, led by A91 Partners, Aditya Birla Ventures and Flipkart Ventures and existing investor Arali Ventures.
Kytchens, a full-stack "Kitchen as a Service'' platform, has raised Rs 6.5 crores in equity for its Pre-Series A funding led by Anicut and angel investors like Anand Ladsariya, Bharat Jaisinghani, and Neeraj Goenka.
MicroGO, a biotech startup, has raised Rs 6 crore in Pre-Series A funding round from angel investors in Calcutta.

➡️ Check out our LinkedIn space for more on the funding deals.

Cashback drives surge in WhatsApp Pay UPI transactions💸

WhatsApp Pay's move to kickstart its cashback campaign has boosted its digital payments ambitions on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) network after a sluggish start.

Since it started giving cashbacks to users over the past couple of weeks, WhatsApp Pay has seen daily transaction numbers surge from a few hundred thousand a day to two to three million a day.

It recently ran a single-day promotion offering up to Rs 105 cashback in three instalments for sending Re 1 or more to different contacts. While the spike in transactions is noteworthy, it will be critical to see if it holds with smaller cashback offers or none at all, the sources added.

UPI leaders like Google Pay and PhonePe have previously relied on incentives to attract users. They had a 47% and 34% market share, respectively, as of April. WhatsApp Pay had a minuscule 0.04% share.

Try WhatsApp Pay Now!