Global Marketing News – 20th January 2016
Cash is king in world of Indian ecommerce
The ecommerce giant Amazon has revealed that around half of its customers in India use the cash-on-delivery payment option.
This is largely due to the fact that a large number of Indians (around 40%) don’t actually have a bank account, and even less have a credit card.
In an attempt to increase the number of bank accounts in the country, thereby stimulating online buying, the Indian government has started implementing its plan to give every household a bank account.
Around 180 million bank accounts have been created under the scheme, although 1 in 3 have not been used and contain no money.
The dominance of physical cash as a payment method means that any business thinking of targeting the Indian market should strongly consider having cash-on-delivery as a payment option.
VisitBritain launches 2016 international marketing campaign
VisitBritain has launched its 2016 international digital marketing campaign to attract holidaymakers to the UK.
The campaign is aimed at tourists from the US, France, Germany and Brazil and is called the “Home of Amazing Moments” campaign.
It will run for 3 months and aims to showcase the diversity of attractions, events, cultures and natural landscapes in the British Isles.
The first stage of the campaign will include a short film on VisitBritain’s Facebook and Instagram pages and a push to drive people to a special website, omgb.com, being used for the campaign.
On the OMGB website, tourists will be invited to share their experiences of visiting Britain to enter a competition to win a trip to the UK.
The second stage of the campaign will see tourists being asked to upload pictures of their trips to Britain on social media, using the hashtag #OMGB.
Tourism is expected to generate over £26 billion for the British economy in 2016.
53% of EU population bought something online last year
Research by Eurostat has revealed that two thirds of internet users in the EU, equivalent to 53% of the EU population, bought something online last year.
Ecommerce was most popular amongst internet users in the UK, Germany and Denmark, with the lowest levels of ecommerce being reported in Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus.
The study found that the most popular products bought online differed amongst age groups. Clothes and sports goods were the most popular items bought online amongst 16 to 54 year olds, but travel and holiday accommodation came out on top in the 55 to 74 year old category.
When looking at cross-border ecommerce, the study found that its prevalence had gone up since 2012. 30% of EU online shoppers bought from other EU countries last year, up from 25% in 2012, and 18% also shopped from sites based outside the EU, up from 13% in 2012.
Messaging apps have been blocked in Morocco
All three telecoms companies in Morocco have blocked communication apps that provide voice calling services.
The shock move has resulted in big names such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype and Viber all being blocked in the country.
The Moroccan Telecommunications Regulatory National Agency said the block had been imposed because the apps did not have the licenses required to operate in the country.
Morocco has an internet population of 14 million, equivalent to 41% of the population.
Yandex Translates introduces Elvish language setting
And finally, Lord of the Rings fans in Russia are in for a treat as the country’s leading search engine, Yandex, has unveiled a new language in its translation tool: Elvish.
Yandex Translates now allows users to translate to and from Elvish and 65 other languages.
Elvish is the fictional language spoken by the Elves in JRR Tolkien’s fantasy series Lord of the Rings.
The translated text is written in Tengwar, the alphabet created by JRR Tolkien, meaning that only hardcore fans with knowledge of the Tengwar script will be able to understand the translations.
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Gemma Houghton
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