Global Marketing News – 24th June 2015
Baidu’s iQiyi to acquire 1,000 Hollywood titles
Baidu is to head to Hollywood, thanks to its video streaming subsidiary, iQiyi. The service hit five million subscribers in June, an increase of 765% from the previous year.
iQiyi plans to acquire 1,000 Hollywood titles to add to its collection. In 2014, over 60% of movies played in Chinese cinemas were hosted by iQiyi, and more than 80% of high-grossing movies are also available. The news comes as Baidu’s rival, the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, announces the launch of its own online video streaming service, TBO.
Competition is hotting up in China as companies race to invest in the market before Netflix arrives, a move which is expected to happen before the end of the year. Alibaba already has a stake in Youku Tudou, one of China’s biggest video streaming sites.
1 billion people will do ecommerce by 2020
The total number of global online consumers will reach one billion by 2020, compared to 309 million in 2014, according to a report released by the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Almost half of these users will conduct cross-border transactions as consumers increasingly turn to foreign websites for goods that are either too expensive in their own countries, or not available.
48% of web purchasing comes from the Asia-Pacific region, with China in particular accounting for more than 200 million cross-border consumers.
However, the US is the leading destination for online shoppers, with many consumers coveting a ‘Made in the US’ label.
Latin America is the fastest growing online market, with purchasing increasing by 40% every year. It is closely followed by Russia and the Middle East.
The most popular products in cross-border online shopping are clothing, electronics and beauty products, but it is predicted that future sales could come from fresh food or travel products.
Online dating booming in India
The online dating market is growing at a rate of 500% year-on-year in India.
The growth seems to be driven by the rapidly increasing internet population in the country, as well as a more liberal attitude towards dating. According to the Bloomberg Study in India, the number of arranged marriages has dropped to 27%, compared to 56% in 1970.
More than 115 million users are on online dating websites in India, with the average user spending 10 minutes on dating websites or apps each day.
The average yearly spend on Indian dating sites is US$239, with the overall Indian online dating market being worth more than US$4 billion.
Brits and Germans reluctant to pay for online news
Brits and Germans are reluctant to pay for online news, according to a Reuters Institute report.
Only 6% of UK internet users are currently paying for news on the web, or would be willing to pay for it in the future. Germany isn’t far behind, with 15% currently paying to read news online.
France, Denmark, Spain and Italy have slightly higher rates but efforts to increase paid audiences have not been successful. As more people are accessing news via social media apps on their smartphones, traditional news providers are struggling to compete.
Traditional sources of revenue such as advertising aren’t working as users have little patience for ads; 39% of UK users have installed ad-blocking software, for example.
Experts suggest that publishers need to embrace social media platforms as an outlet for news; 41% of internet users are already finding news items through Facebook each week.
Facebook will not launch Moments in Europe
And finally, Facebook has announced that it will not be launching its new app “Moments” in Europe, citing concerns about the facial recognition technology that the app uses.
Moments was released in the US earlier this month, and allows users to share photographs with only the people who are in the picture, remaining invisible to other Facebook users.
The app uses facial recognition technology to identify who is in each picture.
European regulators had told Facebook that in order for the app to be released in Europe, it must make the app and its facial recognition feature “opt-in”, a function which as yet does not exist.
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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