Entertainment
You won our hearts: Bollywood celebs thank Netanyahu
Mumbai, Jan 19 (IANS) Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bonding here with film celebrities — who have described it an honour and privilege to meet him — was lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “wonderful”.
Netanyahu met the celebrities at a gala “Shalom Bollywood” evening here on Thursday night.
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Karan Johar, Madhur Bhandarkar, Vivek Oberoi, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, Karan Johar, Subhash Ghai, Imtiaz Ali, Prasoon Joshi, Randhir Kapoor, Ronnie Screwvala, Raj Nayak and Sara Ali Khan were among some of the names from the film fraternity present at the event.
Karan tweeted a series of photographs of himself with Netanyahu, saying: “A complete honour and privilege to meet with the honourable Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu… Such a wonderful evening with friends of the fraternity.”
Bhandarkar said it was “great attending presentation on history, culture and geodiversity of Israel along with film fraternity and had a pleasure interacting with Honorable Prime Minister of Israel Netanyahu and the first lady.”
Vivek said it was an “incredible pleasure” to meet Netanyahu, who welcomed Bollywood to feature Israel’s natural beauty in its movies.
“You are an amazing ambassador for Israel, you won our hearts! Looking forward to visiting your beautiful country and experiencing the rich Israeli culture very soon,” Vivek tweeted.
Ghai was touched by the “delightful scene” when Netanyahu invited celebrities for a selfie and Amitabh helped him to take the selfie.
“A pleasant evening indeed,” he said, adding that he was glad that master of ceremony Mandira Bedi did not use the word “Bollywood” in her speech, nor did Amitabh while welcoming Netanyahu.
“They used the word Hindi cinema — a real title of pride for Indian and Indian cinema,” Ghai added.
On Netanyahu’s wish, the celebrities posed for an Oscar-like selfie.
Netanyahu shared the photograph on his Twitter page, writing: “Will my Bollywood selfie beat Hollywood selfie at the Oscars?”
To that, Modi wrote: “Wonderful bonding, Prime Minister!”
–IANS
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Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
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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