Global Marketing News – 22nd February 2016
Businesses eye up Africa for international expansion opportunities
Many businesses are missing out on international expansion opportunities by dismissing the African market, which holds a lot more potential than many companies give it credit for.
Many African countries have under-developed IT services in sectors such as education, health, agriculture and industry.
This presents a great opportunity for companies looking to expand internationally.
Having picked up on this fact, the Egyptian IT Industry Chamber (ITC) has said that Egyptian tech companies should consider targeting other African countries.
The ITC advises tech companies to target English-speaking African countries, adding that choosing countries with transport infrastructures and money transfer methods was important.
To encourage business between Egyptian companies and other African countries, the ITC has been organising so-called “Bridges” trips, which involves companies travelling to the target countries and promoting their services.
One successful trip to Morocco has already taken place, and trips to Algeria and several southern African countries are in the pipeline.
Yandex sees strong Q4 2015 growth
The Russian internet giant Yandex saw strong growth in the 4th quarter of 2015.
Figures released by the company reveal that in Q4, Yandex generated revenues worth 18.09 billion Rubles, up 23% on the same period the previous year.
When looking at the whole of 2015, Yandex saw revenues climb 18% on 2014 to 59.8 billion Rubles.
Breaking this down, advertising revenue rose 22% and “other” revenue rose a staggering 129%. Yandex’s taxi hailing app service, Yandex.Taxi, was behind most of this growth.
When looking at the Russian internet market as a whole, the data revealed that Yandex’s share of the search market had grown to 57.3%. Google’s share also rose, to 35.2%, whilst Search Mail.ru saw a fall in popularity.
Russia has an internet penetration rate of 59%, equivalent to 84 million people.
Everjobs expands to cover all of Sri Lanka
The jobs site Everjobs has announced that it is expanding to cover all of Sri Lanka.
Previously, it had only been operating in the capital.
Everjobs allows companies to post vacancies on the site for a fee, whilst job seekers can search and apply for jobs for free.
The Sri Lankan internet market is relatively immature, with just 20% of Sri Lanka’s population of 21 million people currently having access to the internet.
Rather than seeing this as a hindrance, however, Everjobs sees it as an opportunity, saying that if they can become an established and trusted player in the online jobs market whilst internet penetration low, they will reap the rewards when internet penetration inevitably rises.
Demographics are also on Everjobs’ side: young people are the most likely to be unemployed in Sri Lanka, and they are also the most likely to use the internet.
German ecommerce market worth almost 60 billion Euros
The German ecommerce association, the BEVH, has announced that the German ecommerce market was worth almost 60 billion Euros in 2015.
This is an increase of 12% on the previous year, a much higher rate of growth than the retail industry overall, which grew by 3% over the same period.
It is predicted that the German ecommerce market will grow a further 12% this year.
The most popular product categories that were bought online in 2015 were clothing, consumer electronics, books and e-books.
The German ecommerce market is one of the most mature in the world, with a digital buyer penetration of 82%.
World’s first 5G network launches in Finland
And finally, the world’s first 5G network has been launched in Finland.
Named 5G Test Network Finland, the network aims to provide a testing platform for various 5G technologies, apps, services, systems and algorithms.
A high quality 5G network would lead to super-fast internet connections and, most notably, could enable the internet of things to proliferate.
The need for 5G mobile internet is becoming ever more urgent, with 30 times more mobile internet traffic expected in 2020 compared to 2010.
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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