Global Marketing News – 9th October 2015
Yandex looks to Latin America for mobile growth
The Russian search giant Yandex has released a smartphone launcher aimed at Android smartphones in Latin America.
The launcher, or smartphone interface, recommends new apps based on a user’s existing apps, allows users to group apps by icon colour and Google Play category, and has a Quick Access screen which groups together the user’s most frequently used apps and contacts.
The launcher is aimed at low-end smartphones, and takes up just 6.5MB of space.
Yandex hopes to monetise on the launcher by linking it to its advertising platform.
The launcher is expected to be released in the US, Russia and Europe once it has made any adjustments based on feedback received from its Latin American users.
Yandex is most well-known for its search engine of the same name, which is the most popular search engine in Russia with a market share of around 60%.
eBay launches super-local ecommerce site
eBay has launched a local ecommerce site targeting the German city of Mönchengladbach.
The website features around 200,000 items sold by 50 local shops.
Users can shop online and then either collect the items in-store or have them delivered.
The mayor of the city has commented on the initiative, saying: “”We are pleased that our city is a pioneer in the sustainable development of city centres and a pilot site for the urban retail industry in Germany.”
The scheme is expected to run until summer 2016, when its success will be evaluated and a decision made on whether it should be extended to other cities.
The German ecommerce market is one of the most mature in the world, with a digital buyer penetration of 82%.
Indonesian car website Mobilwow receives funding
The Indonesian car-selling website Mobilwow has just received funding worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The undisclosed “high six-figure” amount will help Mobilwow compete with the likes of Mobil123, Carmudi and CarBay in Indonesia’s increasingly competitive car sales market.
Mobilwow is the most popular car classifieds website in Indonesia, with over 1 million people using the site every month.
Indonesia is one of the rising stars in the Asian online economy.
Earlier this year, the Chinese search giant Baidu announced it intended to break into the lucrative market.
With internet penetration at around just 20% in the country, Indonesia has huge potential for future growth.
Renminbi is fourth most popular global payment currency
The Chinese Renminbi has risen to become the fourth most popular global payment currency in the world, according to the payments provider Swift.
It is now behind only the US dollar, the Euro and the British pound, and accounts for 2.79% of all global payments.
It used to be in 12th place in mid-2012, and has since overtaken currencies such as the Japanese yen, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and Swiss franc.
In the first six months of this year, cross-border payments going in and out of China totalled 5.7 trillion yuan, equivalent to 900 billion US dollars.
Domino’s Pizza expands to Italy
And finally, the fast food giant Domino’s Pizza has just opened its first restaurant in Italy.
The company already has over 12,000 stores in over 80 countries but this is the first time is has dared to step into Italy – the homeland of pizza.
In order to meet the high expectations of Italian pizza-lovers, the restaurant will source all its ingredients locally to ensure its flavours are “purely Italian”.
Domino’s also intends to open two further restaurants in Italy by the end of the year.
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Gemma Houghton
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