Global Marketing News – 15th June 2016
Yandex Makes Changes To Browser And Search Engine
Yandex has announced a change to its browser that it claims makes it the first of its kind.
The company’s Zen technology, which allows for personalised content recommendation, has been implemented into its browser and will available in 24 countries and 15 languages.
Zen will use Yandex’s huge global web index to select content as recommendations for each user of the browser.
From there users will then be able to like and dislike pages to educate Zen on what sort of content they prefer.
Whilst this service is already available on mobile devices, this is the first time it has been available on a desktop browser.
This came shortly before Yandex also announced that it had changed the calculation for its Thematic Index of Citation, or TIC.
These new calculations mean that there have been changes to inbound link-based signals, whilst other ‘outdated’ signals have been excluded, but no other details were given.
50% Of Europe Due To Be On Social Media In Three Years
A new forecast released by eMarketer has concluded that over 50% of Western Europe’s population will be on social media in three years.
The highest rate of social media usage came from the Netherlands, where 72.3% of internet users use a social network, followed by Norway and the UK.
However, this order isn’t expected to remain consistent due to Italy’s high adoption rate meaning it is likely to have the highest rate of usage by 2020.
Italy’s rise has been attributed to newly available data for consumers, and recently adopted faster internet speeds.
Surprisingly, France and Germany come quite far down the list with just 55 and 57% usage, respectively.
This is due to cultural differences involving privacy concerns and a mistrust of global sites such as Facebook or Google, whilst Germany also has a conservative culture when revealing personal information.
Vente-Privee Launches First European Campaign
French ecommerce business Vente-Privee has launched its first campaign across Europe.
Using a bespoke website for the campaign, the company will target consumers in the UK, Germany and Italy by letting them “discover the shopping à la Française”.
Visitors to the site will be asked to type in an action verb such as running or doing exercise, before being shown a video of that action being done ‘the French way’.
There are 40 different videos available which show the activities being done in a comically stereotypical and light hearted manner.
In an attempt to raise the profile of the company and its brand across Europe, Vente-Privee is aiming to increase the 30 million members it has gained since the company’s launch in 2001.
South Africa Has Seen An Increase In Online Shopping
Ecommerce transactions have seen increased adoption in South Africa recently.
According to a new industry report, which questioned 12,000 people, 56% of people say they shopped online in the first quarter of this year.
41% of respondents said that the main assurance they look for before completing a transaction online was a guaranteed returns policy, whilst 59% said that payment on delivery would encourage a purchase.
However, whilst time saving and access to reviews were cited as reasons they shopped online, the majority of those also said that they would use cards more frequently if rewards were offered such as discounts.
Google And Twitter Team Up To Connect Egypt
And finally, in a fight against Egypt’s strict internet laws, Google and Twitter have teamed up to give the country’s internet users a new service on which they can communicate.
With access on the web limited by the Egyptian administration, Google and Twitter have worked together to launch a service allowing people to send tweets through voicemail on a specific number.
The clamp down on internet access was started in order to limit the contact between citizens and political activists.
Google said that they hoped the idea would “go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time”.
The three numbers in use can be found online, which do not require any internet access at all.
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Cal O'Connell
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