Global Marketing News – 21st May 2015
Baidu pursuing mobile strategy in Indonesia
Baidu is pushing a strong mobile strategy in its attempt to break into the Indonesian market.
Although Baidu does not have an Indonesian homepage, it opened an office in the country in 2013 and has been slowly but steadily penetrating the country’s mobile market.
Their app DU Battery Saver has over 14 million downloads, and their security app PC Faster has also been successful.
More recently, Baidu launched its Android app store Mobomarket, which currently contains over 600,000 local Indonesian apps.
With internet penetration at around just 20% in the country, Indonesia has huge potential for future growth. And with the majority of these internet users go online using a mobile device, this explains why Baidu has been focusing so much on mobile.
Baidu has commented on its drive into Indonesia, saying: “Baidu wants to have a long investment in Indonesia and wants to develop the digital ecosystem here together with other players in the industry. We are optimistic we can grow in Indonesia.”
Alibaba focuses on international expansion
The new CEO of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, Daniel Zhang, has said that international expansion will be a top priority going forward.
Zhang said that: “We will organize a global team and adopt global thinking to manage the business, and achieve the goal of ‘global buy and global sell.’”
Alibaba intends to help Chinese businesses sell to customers abroad, using the AliExpress platform; and also wants to attract more overseas businesses who want to enter the Chinese market, using the Tmall Global platform.
Alibaba is the most popular ecommerce website in the world, although the vast majority of its userbase is in China.
Mobile ecommerce on the increase in Brazil
1 in 5 ecommerce transactions in Brazil will be done on a mobile device by the end of the year, according to estimates by Criteo.
Mobile devices were used in 10% of ecommerce sales at the end of last year, with this figure reaching over 12% in the first quarter of 2015 and being projected to hit 20% by the end of the year.
The majority of these mobile devices are smartphones, rather than tablets.
38 million Brazilians are expected to engage in ecommerce this year, a rise of almost 10% on last year and equivalent to almost a quarter of the country’s population or 4 in 10 internet users.
Chinese soldiers banned from using wearables
The Chinese army has banned its soldiers from wearing smartwatches and other internet-connected wearables.
The ban was introduced after one soldier allegedly tried to take a photo of his colleagues using a smartwatch that had been given to him as a gift, prompting security concerns.
The Chinese government put out the following statement to explain its decision to ban wearables for its soldiers, saying: “The moment a soldier puts on a device that can record high-definition audio and video, take photos, and process and transmit data, it’s very possible for him or her to be tracked or to reveal military secrets. The use of wearables with internet access, location information, and voice-calling functions should be considered a violation of confidential regulations when used by military personnel.”
Wearable devices are becoming increasingly popular worldwide, with 50 million such devices being expected to be shipped this year, more than double the 19 million shipped last year.
Nigeria’s internet population approaches 85 million
And finally, Nigeria’s internet population is approaching 85 million people.
The Nigerian Communications Commission has revealed that the internet population hit 83.4 million earlier this year, an increase of over 1 million on previous figures.
The 4 biggest internet providers were MTN Nigeria, Globacom, Airtel Nigeria and Etisalat.
Nigeria has the largest internet population in Africa, and is the leading African nation for ecommerce, where 90% of internet users either shop online currently or plan to do so in the future.
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Gemma Houghton
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