Global Marketing News – 6th July 2016
Baidu sets its sights beyond Asia
Robin Li, the CEO of China’s most popular search engine Baidu, has said that the company intends to enter the US and European markets.
Its rival Google is the dominant search engine in both the US and Europe, which means that Baidu will face extremely difficult competition if it tries to challenge Google in the search market in these regions.
For this reason, Baidu has hinted that it will be focussing on other channels, such as finance and its Baidu Maps service, when targeting the US and European markets.
There are also signs that it will focus on the automotive industry. Baidu has been developing driverless car technology and also recently invested in the US car-sharing company Uber.
Dutch retail online advertising market revealed
Research by Deloitte has investigated the online advertising market for the Dutch retail sector.
It found that advertisers are increasingly embracing Google Shopping ads. The amount of advertising budget being spent on Google Shopping ads went up from just 6% in 2014 to 23% in 2015, a threefold increase.
Google Shopping ads display at the top of the Google search results when a user searches for products online.
Dutch retailers are also realising the importance of mobile advertising. Retail and travel companies spent a record 49% of their advertising budgets on mobile ads last year, a higher proportion than ever before.
Dutch online advertisers are expected to spend 733 million Euros on their paid search campaigns this year, roughly 200 million Euros more than last year.
Mobile ecommerce on the rise in Vietnam
Mobile ecommerce is becoming ever more popular in Vietnam, according to research by Nielsen.
70% of people in Vietnam’s cities now use a smartphone, along with 40% of those who live in rural areas.
Over 1 in 5 now use their smartphone to engage in online shopping, and this proportion is rising all the time.
Vietnamese mobile shoppers tend to search for brands rather than product types, and are very receptive to coupons and discounts.
The study also found that certain types of products are more likely to be bought using a mobile device rather than a laptop or desktop, such as food.
Turkish ecommerce market shows huge potential
The Turkish ecommerce market has huge growth potential, mainly due to its young population, according to the founder of the Turkish ecommerce site Trendyol.
Demet Mutlu, Trendyol’s founder, recently commented on the country’s online shopping market, saying: “If you set up the right business model and target young people, there is tremendous growth potential in ecommerce, even more so than in the US or Europe”.
Turkey has a population of 79 million people, with a median age of around 30, and these young people are extremely tech savvy, with mobile penetration at almost 95%.
Currently, just 2% of Turkey’s retail revenue comes from ecommerce sites, much less than the 5% average in emerging markets and 7% average in developed markets.
With so much growth still to come, Mutlu is urging businesses to consider the Turkish market when expanding internationally.
Japanese AR start-up raises $2 million to enter US
And finally, the Japanese start-up Kudan has raised 2 million US dollars’ worth of funding, which it plans to use to enter the US market.
Kudan creates software development kits for augmented reality app developers. It has an iOS and Android version, and has 3D rendering and camera tracking tools.
Kudan has said that it intends to use the money to improve its AR engine, and to expand within its home market of Japan and into the new market of the US.
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Cal O'Connell
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