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German Court Gives Website Blocking Powers To ISPs

By Elin Box on December 1, 2015

Global Marketing News – 1st December 2015

German court gives website blocking powers to ISPs

A German court has ruled that the blocking of websites is permissible in certain circumstances.

The ruling said that internet providers are obliged to block access to websites that contain content that infringes copyright, if the owners of the pirate website cannot be contacted.

A spokesperson from the German collection society GEMA commented on the ruling, saying: “Finally we have legal clarity on the permissibility of blocking access to websites illegally offering copyrighted music works on a massive scale. This is a major step forward in the fight against Internet piracy.”

Website blocking is legal in Europe, according to the European Court of Justice, although it is down to national courts to decide the exact law in each country.

The German ruling now brings it more in line with other European countries.

Line ramps up its efforts in Thailand

The social app company Line is ramping up its efforts in Thailand.

Thailand is Line’s second biggest market, where it has over 33 million monthly active users.

As the social app struggles to find traction in new markets, it has instead decided to re-double its efforts in markets where it already has a strong presence, to protect against users defecting to newcomers such as Facebook Messenger.

Line opened a research and development (R&D) department in the country last week, the first such department built outside of Line’s native country of Japan.

Last week it also launched Line Giftshop and announced that it would launch another “new mobile app service” in the country next year.

Line Giftshop allows users to send real-world gifts to friends, such as cinema tickets, with users paying for the gifts using the company’s own online payments service Line Pay.

Line has around 212 million monthly active users worldwide, with the majority being based in Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and Taiwan.

How do Indians use Instagram?

Research by Nielsen has revealed how Indians are using the image-based social network Instagram.

Indian Instagram users tend to be affluent, having taken an average of 4 holidays in the last year and around 50% having bought from brands they follow on the social network.

Travel, photography, technology, sports, fashion, music and food were found to be key areas that Indian Instagram users tend to be interested in.

The majority of users reported that they used the social network to discover current food and travel trends, follow celebrities, express themselves and share images with their friends.

Instagram is a popular image-based social network, with approximately 400 million monthly active users, three-quarters of whom are from outside the US.

EasySize to launch in the UK, France and Germany

The online clothes sizing company EasySize has announced that it will launch in the UK, France and Germany next year.

EasySize works by analysing data from online clothes retailers’ websites to get a picture of the kinds of items shoppers frequently buy and return to predict a user’s correct clothes size.

It recently launched in Sweden, where it has been successful, with 61% of buyers deciding to go with the clothes size the tool suggested to them.

Its upcoming entry into the British, French and German markets will see it entering three of Europe’s top ecommerce markets.

Why do so many Indonesians not buy online?

And finally, research from SingPost has found that despite the increasing popularity of online shopping in Indonesia, ecommerce still only accounts for 0.5% of retail sales in the country, and only 8% of internet users engage in ecommerce.

It investigated the reason why so many internet users were staying away from online shopping and found that a lack of trust in ecommerce websites was a key concern.

Fear of online fraud was found in a staggering 60% of respondents.

Slow internet speeds also put a lot of Indonesians off visiting ecommerce websites.

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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Elin Box

Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain
Elin is a Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain. She is responsible for Webcertain’s Self-learning platform, producing in-depth guides on a range of international digital marketing topics. She also helps run the Webcertain blog and is the writer of the Webcertain search and social report, an annual report summarising digital marketing best practices in over 50 countries. She is passionate about educating and empowering people to make the best decisions for their business and is proud to help share Webcertain’s wealth of digital marketing knowledge with the world. Elin is from the UK.

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