Global Marketing News – 16th November 2015
Online video advertising in Japan is all about awareness
Research by Digital InFact and CyberAgent has revealed the online video advertising landscape in Japan.
The study found that the vast majority of marketers who engaged in online video advertising did so to improve awareness and recognition of products and services, with 92% saying this was their goal.
Trailing far behind in second place, 50% said that increasing site traffic was a goal, with brand recall, increasing understanding of products and services, and promoting sales through a website also being given as less common goals.
Only 38% of marketers questioned said they engaged in online video advertising, however, with difficulties in measuring ad effectiveness given as the number one reason putting many advertisers off the medium.
Recent research by Nielsen also revealed that online video ads were not well-trusted in Japan, with people much more likely to trust TV adverts than their online counterparts.
Brazilian taxi app Easy Taxi launches in Mombasa
The Brazilian taxi hailing app Easy Taxi has expanded into the Kenyan city of Mombasa.
It had already launched in the Kenyan cities of Nairobi and Nakuru, with its latest launch in Mombasa being driven by consumer demand, according to the company.
Easy Taxi allows users to order a taxi using the app and works in a similar way to international giant Uber.
Originally launched in Brazil, it now has a presence across Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
It latest expansion in Kenya reflects the strong demand for such services in the country and a relatively low level of competition.
Kenya was one of just nine African countries to recently make it into the top 100 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index.
Internet censorship in Uzbekistan
One of the most popular Facebook groups in Uzbekistan is actually illegal under the strict government regime.
Qorqmaymiz, which has around 14,000 members, is described as a groups for Uzbeks who “believe in liberty” and is a place where they frequently post comments critical of the government and other banned content.
It is illegal in Uzbekistan to post any content that is considered “slanderous” against the regime, a deliberately vaguely-worded law that human rights activists have said allows the government to imprison anyone they feel threatens their grip on power.
Online surveillance and the blocking of websites is commonplace in the country, with a new law brought in in 2014 recently making it illegal to post or share “untrue” content.
The Uzbek government shut down a similar online forum called Arbuz in 2011, with some commentators saying it may only be a matter of time until Facebook is blocked as well.
Japanese travel company Evolable Asia eyes US for expansion
The online Japanese travel company Evolable Asia has just received 640 million Yen, equivalent to 5.3 million US dollars, worth of investment from Fenox Venture Capital.
Evolable Asia runs several online Japanese travel booking portals and its travel search technologies are used by a further 300 travel operators.
It hopes to use the money to develop its team of engineers in Vietnam and expand its services to other East Asian countries and the US.
Google self-driving car stopped by police
And finally, one of Google’s self-driving cars was recently pulled over by the police… for driving too slowly.
A Californian police officer pulled over the vehicle, which was driving at 24mph in a 35mph zone after noticing traffic starting to build up behind the autonomous car.
After determining that the car was not breaking any traffic laws, however, it was allowed to continue on its way.
Google’s self-driving cars have been programmed to drive extremely carefully and have a maximum speed of 25 mph.
Google responded in a light-hearted manner to the incident, joking that it bet that humans didn’t get pulled over for driving too slowly too often.
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.
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Cal O'Connell
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