15 April 2015 – Global Marketing News
Paid links will be a negative ranking factor for Yandex
Yandex is to update its search engine ranking algorithm to make paid links a negative ranking factor.
Last year, Yandex announced that paid links were to be removed as a ranking factor for shopping queries in the Moscow region. The rationale was that paid links were a dishonest practice being abused by black-hat SEOs intent on artificially pushing up a website’s ranking in the search engine results pages.
Yandex hoped that by removing paid links as a ranking factor it would discourage black-hat SEOs from using the tactic, however, it found that there was only a 16% decrease in paid links in the last year.
Therefore, it has reintroduced links as a ranking factor, with paid links considered a negative ranking factor that would actively demote a website’s ranking, and natural, organic links a positive ranking factor.
Yandex says that its machine-learning based algorithm can tell the difference between these paid and organic links.
Alexander Sadovsky, head of Yandex search, has commented on the algorithm change, saying that the search engine wants to improve the quality of links in the long-term by penalising websites with paid links.
The new algorithm will be rolled out from the beginning of May and will cover all websites across the whole of Russia.
WhatsApp rival Wavee launches in Singapore
A new call and messaging app called Wavee has launched in Singapore, with ambitions to challenge the likes of WhatsApp.
Wavee allows users to send instant messages to one another and make voice and video calls, as well as send video, audio, photo and document files.
It is available for free on both Android and iOS, and is owned by Singapore’s largest telecoms company Singtel.
In an attempt to attract people to the app, Singtel have launched a limited time offer whereby Singtel users will not incur any data charges for using the Wavee app.
This has sparked a debate around internet neutrality, however, with some commentators saying Singtel should not be able to charge rival companies data charges for using its network whilst not imposing any charges on its own app.
Chinese retailer Wanda creates ecommerce site ffan.com
The Chinese retailer Wanda has announced that it has created its own ecommerce website ffan.com , which is currently in its testing phase and has not been properly launched yet.
Wanda is one of China’s largest retailers, managing around 100 different shopping centres and department stores. Last year, over 160 million people visited a Wanda store and the company’s revenue increased by 30% to almost 250 billion yuan.
Shoppers at ffan.com will be able to place orders on the site, but will need to visit a physical Wanda store in order to pick up their item.
Wanda also plans to develop a loyalty scheme whereby shoppers on the site can collect points whenever they buy an item, leave a product review or check in at a Wanda store on a social media site.
Wanda hopes that ffan.com will attract 100 million users this year.
Ad spending to exceed $20 billion in Brazil this year
Total ad spending is expected to break the 20 billion US dollar mark in Brazil for the first time ever this year, according to research by E-Marketer.
Ad spending in Brazil is expected to increase by 10% this year, and this rate of growth is predicted to continue until 2019, when total ad spend is expected to hit almost 30 billion US dollars.
Digital ad spending is expected to make up 15% of all ad spend in Brazil this year, with this figure set to increase to 17% by 2019.
Search ads are expected to account for 53% of all digital ad spend, with display ads making up 40% and classified ads the remaining 7%.
These proportions are not expected to change much over the next 4 years, although a slight increase in search advertising and a slight decline in classified ads are predicted.
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Cal O'Connell
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