Global Marketing News – 1st June 2015
Vietnamese browser Coc Coc takes on Google Chrome
Coc Coc is the second most popular web browser in Vietnam, coming after only Google Chrome, according to data from ComScore.
Google Chrome currently has 5.95 million users in Vietnam, compared to 4.19 Coc Coc users. Coc Coc is expected to overtake Chrome as the top browser in the near future, having already overtaken Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Coc Coc was created by Vietnamese developers especially for a Vietnamese audience. It automatically checks Vietnamese spellings and suggests corrections for misspellings with a 90% accuracy rate. It also boasts a high download speed for files and it recently added features to help users with maths queries.
It’s not only Coc Coc’s web browser that is doing well in Vietnam. Its search engine is the most visited website in the country, and the company recently received 14 million US dollars to help it expand across South East Asia and further penetrate the market.
Alibaba’s T-Mall platform launches “Korea Pavilion”
Alibaba’s T-Mall platform has launched “Korea Pavilion”, a section of its site devoted solely to selling Korean products to Chinese consumers.
Korean products are extremely popular in China, with a Korean cosmetic product being the best-selling item on Alibaba on China’s Singles’ Day last year.
The launch of Korea Pavilion seems to be just the beginning of Alibaba’s plans to strengthen ties with Korea and further penetrate the Korean market.
Alibaba has announced that it will start offering paid internships to Korean graduates later this year, and has also suggested it is considering funding Korean tech start-ups.
The rationale seems to be that if Alibaba can get these young, tech-savvy Koreans on board with Alibaba now, they will be loyal customers in the future.
Google introduces YouTube “buy now” ads
Google has added a new feature that allows users to buy products simply by clicking on links in adverts that play before YouTube videos.
The ecommerce links lead to merchants that use Google Shopping, and are supposedly targeted to users so that the most relevant links appear to each user.
The initiative shows Google’s ambition to enter the ecommerce market, which is currently dominated by big names such as Amazon and Ebay.
French now just as likely to watch video online as on TV
Research by MediaMetrie NetRatings has revealed that the French are now as likely to view video content online as on TV, with a strong skew towards younger people.
In a study involving 20,000 French participants, 8 out of 10 said they had watched a video on a computer in the last month.
15-24 year olds admitted to watching an average of 131 online videos a month, with this number falling to 89 among 24-35 year olds, and those aged 65 and over watching just 37 online videos a month. Across all ages, the average person watched 76 online videos a month.
The heavy usage in the younger age bands can be partially explained by the fact that video games and music videos were included in the definition of an “online video”, with both these types of video proving extremely popular in the younger age groups.
Smartphone ownership also appeared to be a factor, with the proportion of smartphone ownership being positively correlated with the proportion of video viewing across all age groups.
Brazilian ecommerce giant B2W Digital online sales up 25%
Brazil’s largest ecommerce company B2W Digital saw its online sales increase by 24% in the first quarter of this year.
It attributes the growth to a recent increase in mobile traffic to its sites. Its volume of mobile traffic has increased by 18% compared to last year, and the number of mobile transactions has increased by 16%.
B2W Digital says these increases are due to its improved mobile websites since its acquisition of 2 mobile technology companies.
It plans to continue this growth, and recently launched an experimental program whereby customers could shop online and collect the product in a physical store, rather than the item being sent by post.
B2W Digital is the biggest ecommerce company in Brazil and owns the popular Brazilian ecommerce sites Submarino, Americanas, Shoptime and SouBarato.
Webcertain’s global marketing news bulletins are daily 5-minute videos, providing marketers with the latest international digital marketing news in an easy-to-digest format.
Cal O'Connell
Latest posts by Cal O'Connell (see all)
- An interactive video journey: How to expand into the Chinese market - June 29, 2021
- Facebook to decrease visibility of business posts - January 16, 2018
- Naver criticised for manipulating suggested search terms - January 9, 2018
