Global Marketing News – 25th February 2016
Paytm to launch luxury ecommerce platform Anasa
The Indian mobile payments and ecommerce company Paytm is allegedly planning to launch a luxury ecommerce platform, according to an anonymous source close to the deal.
Paytm has allegedly been reaching out to luxury brands asking them to consider selling their products on the platform, which will be called Anasa.
Gucci, Burberry, Fendi and Furla have already said they are interested in selling on the luxury platform.
The Indian luxury ecommerce market is growing rapidly and is expected to be worth 390 billion Rupees by 2020, equivalent to around 5.7 million US dollars.
Paytm’s non-luxury ecommerce site currently has over 100 million users.
MasterCard and WeChat introduce biometric authentication
Two digital payment companies have announced that they will soon be introducing biometric authentication options.
MasterCard will be introducing fingerprint and selfie authentication.
This means that if additional authentication is needed after a user has entered their credit card details, they will be able to prove who they are by scanning their fingerprint using their smartphone, or by looking into their smartphone’s camera. They will need to blink when prompted to do so, so that fraudsters can’t get away with just holding up a photo of the card owner.
The Chinese company WeChat is also introducing fingerprint authentication for its WeChat Pay service. WeChat Pay is extremely popular in China, with 60% of WeChat’s 650 million users having signed up to the service.
AccuWeather pledges to continue global expansion
The weather forecasting company AccuWeather has announced that two thirds of its users are based outside the US, and has pledged to continue its international expansion.
In order to attract more global users, the company has been busy localising its website and app, with AccuWeather now being available in over 100 languages.
It has also opened new offices in various international markets, including India, Japan and China.
In order to serve the Chinese market, AccuWeather has formed a joint venture partnership with the Chinese government’s weather department. The deal means that AccuWeather is the sole provider of weather information to China’s population of over 1 billion people.
AccuWeather has said it intends to continue its international drive this year.
CupoNation raises $11 million for global expansion
The online coupon and discounts company CupoNation has raised 11 million US dollars in its latest round of funding.
CupoNation, which is currently operating in around 20 countries, has said it will use the money to strengthen its position in its existing markets and also continue its global expansion.
CupoNation allows users to use coupons on certain ecommerce sites in order to save money. It is currently partnered with 25,000 ecommerce sites and offers half a million discounts.
CupoNation’s head of SEO, Rahul Gupta, will be speaking at the International Search Summit in Munich on the 16th of March, sharing tips for managing SEO in multiple global markets.
The global online coupon market is hotting up at the moment. Earlier this month, the Chinese internet giant Alibaba announced that it was buying a stake in the coupon company Groupon for over 100 million dollars.
Twitter embraces experiential marketing in the Philippines
And finally, Twitter has embraced experiential marketing and launched an installation called #TwitterCityPH at The Mind Museum in the Philippines.
#TwitterCityPH is an interactive space that contains a food court, basketball court, TV booth, photo booth and other attractions.
It aims to immerse visitors in Filipino culture and showcase how important Twitter has become in the country.
Twitter is immensely popular in the Philippines, with 69% of Filipino Twitter users engaging with the social network every day, compared to a global average of 33%.
The Philippines has an internet penetration rate of 39%, equivalent to around 39 million people.
Twitter is one of the most popular micro-blogging platforms in the world, with almost 320 million monthly active users.
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