Jewellery’s Instagram moment; Claude Cowork stirs concerns

Happy Friday! Instagram is driving growth for fashion jewellery brands through discovery-led shopping. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Also in the letter:
■ PhysicsWallah, Nykaa earnings
■ IT buybacks set to soar
■ Amit Agarwal’s new role at Amazon

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A fast-moving fashion jewellery market is taking shape on Instagram, where reels, styling clips and user-generated posts are turning the Meta-owned platform into a discovery-led shopping channel for digital-native consumers, industry executives said.

Discovery-led growth on Instagram:

• New-age brands such as Lili Origin, Attrangi, Dhora India, Just Lil Things and Hannan have grown by collapsing the gap between browsing and buying.
• Executives say customer acquisition costs are often lower than on Google because traffic is driven organically, amplified by video consumption and repeat exposure.

Low barriers, rising competition: The flip side is speed and sameness. Entry barriers are thin, designs travel fast, and near-identical catalogues now flood feeds. Competition has pushed brands toward:

• Bundle pricing and “buy more, get more” offers.
• Sharp discounting to drive volume.
• Faster catalogue churn to stay visible.

Scroll-to-shop behaviour: For Gen Z consumers, impulse buying via social media feels native, especially in low-ticket categories such as fashion jewellery, make-up and accessories. Several brands now draw a majority of their traffic from Instagram, where higher open rates and engagement have made it the primary destination for Meta ad spends.


Execution separates winners: As commodification sets in, differentiation rests on execution. Industry watchers point to:

• Relentless posting cadence
• Clean merchandising and packaging
• Frequent drops and quick refresh cycles.
• Offers tuned for mobile attention spans.

Leading brands are now using Instagram-led scale as a launchpad, extending into offline retail and overseas markets once volume and recall kick in.

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Anthropic’s new agentic AI tool, Claude Cowork, has reopened an old fault line in India’s IT services and SaaS industry. Is this a productivity tailwind or an existential warning?

Talk in the town: One camp argues that tools like Claude Cowork will not upend software businesses overnight. Instead, they see it as an accelerant — helping teams build faster, automate routine tasks, and push AI deeper into products and services.

The other camp is less relaxed. They warn that India’s IT sector still leans heavily on low-end outsourcing and incremental work, and risks getting squeezed if it does not invest faster in higher-value capabilities.

Industry leaders’ POV:

• R Srikrishna (Hexaware CEO) said that agentic AI does not automatically replace SaaS or cloud by default. People are still needed to build cloud-native software and run such systems.
• Samir Arora (Helios Capital founder) said Indian IT firms chase short-term deal flow and underinvest in long-term strategy.
• Mohandas Pai (former Infosys CFO) countered that Indian IT companies are service firms like Accenture and can deliver AI effectively to global clients. Product companies, he said, need “large local markets, huge capital, large economy” that India still “lacks”.
• Sridhar Vembu (Zoho) added that firms spending more on sales than on engineering and product development were constantly exposed to disruption.

Also Read: Fear factor: Claude Cowork, techies no work?

Stock falls: The debate sharpened after global tech and software stocks shed nearly $300 billion in value following Claude Cowork’s launch. Many investors fear job losses and pricing pressure. Others see the sell-off as hasty, noting that AI-led services still offer significant revenue opportunities.

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(L-R) Prateek Maheshwari and Alakh Pandey, founders, PhysicsWallah

PhysicsWallah posted strong growth in the December quarter, supported by growth in paid users and expansion of its offline centres.

Financials:

• Operating revenue: Up 34% YoY to Rs 1,082.4 crore.
• Net profit: Stood at Rs 102.3 crore in Q3 FY26, compared with Rs 70 crore in Q2 FY26.
• Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda): Stood at Rs 351.2 crore, with margins at 32%

Nine-month performance (ended December 2025):

• Operating revenue: Grew 31% YoY to Rs 2,980.7 crore.
• Net profit: Stood at Rs 45 crore, after adjusting for one-time expenses
• Revenue milestone: Exceeded full-year FY25 revenue within the first nine months of FY26

Company statement: “PhysicsWallah’s growth has been driven by an expanding user base and supported by a diversified portfolio, including AI-powered products, value-added services, crash courses, and offline batches across segments such as civil services, other government exams, and chartered accountancy.”



Nykaa parent FSN E-Commerce Ventures reported robust growth in the December quarter of FY26, with profits more than doubling and revenue increasing significantly compared to the previous year.

Also Read: Nykaa eyes Rs 6,000 crore GMV from in-house brands by FY30, ramps up fashion and AI bets

Financials:

• Net profit: Jumped 151 % to Rs 67.7 crore, from Rs 26.9 crore a year earlier
• Revenue from operations: Rose 27% to Rs 2,873 crore, from Rs 2,267 crore
• Gross merchandise value (GMV): Increased 28% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 5,795 crore
• Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda): Increased 63% YoY to Rs 230 crore

Also Read: BlackBuck’s Q3 profit rises to Rs 31.7 crore on strong core business growth

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Budget tax tweaks to revive buyback momentum of cash-rich IT large caps: Expect IT outsourcing leaders with eye-popping cash on their balance sheets to announce buybacks. After the budget reclassified the repurchase exercise as capital gains, lowering the tax outgo for investors, the $280-billion industry could return to its favourite mode of rewarding long-term shareholders, experts said.

Amazon expands SVP Amit Agarwal’s role to include global selling partner services: Amazon has expanded the role of its senior vice president (SVP) Amit Agarwal, and brought global selling partner services under his remit alongside emerging markets, the company said in a statement.

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■ Hollywood Is Losing Audiences to AI Fatigue (Wired)

■ China is running the EV playbook on humanoid robots — and it’s working (Rest of the World)