Thanks, Rajiv. The servers are within NSE/BSE -- that's correct. In China, it depends if the stock exchanges there allow for 'co-location', the industry term for locating your servers with the premises of the stock exchange. The dark fibre was an optic fibre cable between NSE and BSE that only the specific stockbroker had access to. This was advantageous because 1) It was a direct line (shortest distance) 2) It was exclusive, hence faster.

Shreedhar Manek

Thanks, Sandeep. That's a very fair reading and your point's completely taken and valid. However, most HFT firms *are* quite shadowy in that they're secretive (prefer to stay in the shadows). Even a biggie such as Jump Trading has a website that gives little to no information about its work. And being shadowy is certainly not a problem. It works for the HFT firms and that's okay. But it also makes them all the more intriguing for both me as a writer and the general reader :)

Shreedhar Manek

Hi Nithin. No, I didn't dig into how the companies went about their recovery.

Shreedhar Manek

Hey Ankit, that's odd, but if there are any issues on this front do email [email protected] Thanks!

Shreedhar Manek

Thanks, Rajiv. No, Druva would backup everything, but it would 1) be able to do a check on what kind of data is collected in the first place and where *that* is stored 2) allow for storing the data in servers located in specific geographies 3) delete all data associated to a certain user to comply with right to be forgotten guidelines.

Shreedhar Manek

Not at all. AWS and others already have similar backup tools, but they're far from full-service products. So unless Amazon or Microsoft invest in in these products and make them full service, they aren't a threat.

Shreedhar Manek

Thanks, Rajiv. Currently, the fee is only for digital goods. The problem arises when the line is blurred. For example, Google won't take a fee on a physical gym subscription sold through an app, but it would if it's a remote gym subscription. Google has been allowing payments to go through outside its billings system until now, but the recent notification debars that. So while apps can sell subscriptions through their websites, they can't redirect customers from the app.

Shreedhar Manek

Advertises have access to Affle's tools, as well as their own (such as Appsflyer) to figure out where a user is coming from. There are quite a few privacy concerns. Affle has cross-advertiser information, so they know who's a more likely customer for another advertiser. Apart from having a fair guess of a user's age-range, preferences, etc. But India doesn't have a privacy law yet. In EU, where GDPR is already in place, ad tech firms are navigating through a minefield. Affle, on the other hand, is in markets with little to no privacy legislation. https://www.complianceweek.com/data-privacy/app-firms-adtech-industry-in-firing-line-over-possible-gdpr-violations/28316.article https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/10/adtech-giant-criteo-is-being-investigated-by-frances-data-watchdog/

Shreedhar Manek

Hey Amrit. The $1.86 bn market is to do with the annual revenue, not market cap. The market cap is how the valuation given to the company by the public market.

Shreedhar Manek

Thanks, Rahul. A conversion can't be ensured, only hoped :) If ten people in their 20s in Mumbai or Bangalore are being shown an Uber ad with a discount, chances are some of them would give it a shot. For advertisers where such a conversion doesn't happen, most campaigns are real-time and can be terminated. Affle told me that they do this every now and then.

Shreedhar Manek

Hi Yamuna, do tell me if there's something incorrect, and I can correct it in the article. Affle's stock liquidity is low, but that is not a reason for a 3X increase in the price. All it means is that a higher volatility can be expected in the stock prices. I've looked at affiliate, programmatic and OEM, even though I've tried my best to avoid using jargon. I understand if you feel the article doesn't add enough in value for someone within the industry. Thanks for your comment!

Shreedhar Manek

Thanks, Shalaka. In one line, their risks were the same as Affle's today. They're primarily middlemen, and there's no consumer loyalty in ad tech. With little product differentiation, anyone who can offer the advertiser a better deal will win. I've linked to one such story about Millennium Media at the beginning of the piece, feel free to check it out!

Shreedhar Manek