Entertainment
Celebs take digital route to stay in touch with fans
By Sugandha Rawal
New Delhi, Jan 15 (IANS) Film celebrities are moving on from the virtual world of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and opting for a more personalised “virtual” gateway to stay connected to their fans and followers — personal mobile applications.
In 2016, Salman Khan launched ‘Being In Touch’ through which he shares updates about his personal and professional life with his fans.
Sunny Leone too has an app.
“The app actually keeps us connected all the time. We do games and contests and speak to members all the time, making them feel special with exclusive content and also getting special gifts from me personally,” Sunny told IANS.
From Farhan Akhtar, Alia Bhatt, Sonam Kapoor, Amy Jackson, Remo D’souza to Disha Patani, stars are getting on the digital bandwagon, and making their starry lives just a touch away from their fans and admirers.
Disha, who has featured in “M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story” and will be seen in “Baaghi 2”, reflects upon her idea of letting fans into her life virtually.
“I have been looking at the best way to help me keep in touch with the people that are so important in my life and due to my growing love of apps, I wanted to see if there was anything available that could help me in connecting with everyone. It is really sweet to get personalised texts from each one of them,” said the actress, who came out with her app last year.
To this, actor-presenter Rannvijay Singha added: “The app is a great way for me to keep connected with my fans all the time, even when I am on the go. We do live sessions and contests and reply to them all the time. That way, I can finally put names to the faces I have been seeing in events that I go for and vice-versa.
“Exclusive content is another boon on the app as all my previous collected pictures and clips whether from the sets or events go onto the app. Overall, I feel quite at home while interacting with everyone on the app, it’s like a family.”
Breaking the technical logistics of the move, Kulbir Sachdev, General Manager India – and Director – APAC at New York-based tech company Escapex, said: “The celebrities realise the value of owning their own independent platform to communicate with their fans without any hindrance.
“The ability to reach out to all fans and communicating directly and being able to identify who the loyal and top fans are and giving love and recognition to them, forges a stronger bond with the fans.”
Is it catching up?
“The trend is catching up with Escapex alone enabling over 100 artists globally to launch their own app. The trend is very strongly visible in US, India, Brazil, and Indonesia – the top social media markets globally and is now spreading to other countries like Japan, Thailand and some countries in Europe. Celebrity apps are here to stay.”
(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at [email protected])
–IANS
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International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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