Global Marketing News – 5th May 2016
Baidu Investigated Over Teenager’s Death
The Chinese government has begun an investigation into the search engine Baidu after the death of a student.
21 year-old Wei Zexi was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in 2014, and died receiving treatment from a controversial therapy that he found as the first result on a Baidu search.
After the treatment did not work, Wei died this month, and the case has yet again raised questions about the responsibility of Baidu and the false advertising of healthcare on the site.
Before his death, Wei had even publically accused Baidu of false medical advertising.
His comments came just after an earlier outcry, where Baidu admitted it allowed healthcare companies to moderate online health forums.
Baidu has since filed a request for the hospital where Wei was treated to be investigated, and said it regretted Wei’s death, and sought to “provide a safe and trustworthy search experience for [its] users”.
Google Chrome Becomes The World’s Most Popular Browser
For the first time, Google Chrome has overtaken Internet Explorer to become the world’s most popular desktop browser.
After Chrome’s launch in 2008, Internet Explorer has been losing ground to the new competition.
Now however, whilst Internet Explorer still has a market share of 41.4%, Chrome surpassed that at the end of last month to achieve a 41.7% share; an advantage of 0.37%.
The statistics, worked out by NetMarketShare, include Internet Explorer and its replacement, Microsoft Edge, as the same browser, as well as counting all versions of Google Chrome as the same browser too.
Mozilla Firefox is in third place for desktop browsers, with a market share under 10%.
The stats also revealed that Chrome has a slightly higher 49% share of all mobile browsing software.
Television Makes Up Half Of All Ad Spending In Brazil
Over half of the total advertising spend in Brazil last year went on broadcast television.
According to a report released by Kantar Media, while 53% of money spent went on broadcast TV, the next highest platform was newspapers, with just 13% of the total spend.
After newspapers came pay TV, which meant there was a total advertising spend of 64% on Brazilian TV as a whole.
All other advertising avenues made up less than 10% of the total amount for the year, with platforms such as cinemas and digital searches making up as little as 1% each.
Whilst it is predicted that television advertising will decrease year-on-year, it is still expected to make up around 50% of spend in Brazil by the year 2020.
Instagram Gets Competition From New App Artistia
Launched in the last few months, new e-commerce app Artistia is looking to capitalise on the high use of Instagram as an e-commerce platform in the Gulf.
Used by many young people in the region, Instagram’s ‘commerce’ feature is being used to promote users’ handmade crafts, in an effort to generate an income from their hobbies and talents.
However, new app ‘Artistia’ has been produced to be used as one of the first e-commerce only apps in the region.
The founder of Artistia believes that the Instagram ‘commerce’ feature is “not the best way” to market homemade items, and that the lack of alternatives to Instagram in the past is the only reason people use it.
The new app allows users to display their handmade items and promote them online, before then sending the items out using a streamlined shipping service, available through partnerships with local shipping companies.
The Dominican Republic Sets Internet Target For 2020
And finally, the Dominican Republic has announced a target of 70% internet penetration by the year 2020.
Currently, internet users in the country make up 53.5% of its population, but only 23% of households have internet connection at all.
The coordinator of the National Commission for the Information Society and Knowledge, Mirna Gonzalez, said that the Dominican Republic had set itself a target for increased internet usage across mobile, desktop and broadband connections by 2020.
Whilst the target for internet usage itself is 70%, the country hopes to increase broadband rates from 6% to 10%, and to increase mobile connectivity from 41% this year, to 55% in 2020.
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