When CEOs Fight: CashKaro Founder Takes to Twitter for pending MobiKwik Payment CEOs are also using the shaming method to get attention to their problems via Twitter - what's the deal?
By Rustam Singh
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They say you shouldn't wash your dirty laundry in public. But "they' would have said that probably before Twitter was launched. Originally developed a s micro blogging websites, evolving into a celebrity and brand following social media to scout for trends across the world, now is turning into a shaming ground for customers and brands itself. This is rightly so – Twitter reaches out to a more wider audience, and blacklisted or undesirable tweets spread faster than any even cat memes on the internet. Public Relations of businesses and startups would do anything to get these down or resolved ASAP – because a potential client or customer would be able to view the defamation and there's not much the brand can do to protect against that. While some abuse this kind of authoritarian power, thankfully brands are still treating complains via Twitter seriously, and such issues are often resolved much quicker than other methods. However, lately, CEOs of major startups are taking Twitter as a playground to mess around with other CEOs, not just reaching out to investors or giving a public view of potential future tie-ups. That's what happened lately, when CashKaro's founder took out on Twitter to reach out to Mobikwik's CEO for pending payments.
On 9th June, CashKaro co-founder Swati Bhargava tweeted to MobiKwik CEO Bipin Preet Singh, saying that payments from the company to CashKaro are pending for the last six months now. To add more insult to the embarrassment, MobiKwik's A.I. once again demonstrated the failures of bots to work as good as they should by shooting her an instant reply asking her for the ticket number for the complain she's filed.
Of course, the original Tweet is now deleted, and MobiKwik responded by saying affiliates are based by the advertiser which takes time, given the large volume of transactions happening every day. Apparently, the terms of conditions also states it may take about 90 days to complete payments, and is agreed with all partners. When we contacted Cashkaro, they said, "We have nothing specific to add. There was a problem in reconciliation which has now been resolved with Mobikwik."
This isn't the first time CEOs have taken to Twitter to show their petty rivalry, much to the amusement to the rest of the twitter population. In March, Flipkart and Snapdeal CEOs send a series of Tweets insulting each other. Reacting on the news of one of the world's largest wholesale ecommerce giant Alibaba setting base in India, Sachin Bansal, Flipkart's CEO tweeted saying this shows how poorly Indian investments have done so far.
Snapdeal's CEO Kunal Bahal took it off tweeting, "Didn't Morgan Stanley just flush $5 billion worth market cap in Flipkart down the toilet?" This tweeted referred to Morgan Stanley reportedly slashing Flipkart's valuation by a whopping 25 percent. While fighting like school children the series of Tweets left everyone laughing, it did generate a lot of attention to both brands. They say any publicity is good publicity, right?
What do you think using Twitter for such petty quarrels by CEOs? Let us know in the comments on our Facebook page Entrepreneur India
