Global marketing mews – 14 August 2015
Google competitor launches own news portal
The French search engine Qwant, has launched a News portal.
On the News homepage, users can see a grid of the hottest news topics. Clicking on a topic will take users to a page containing a list of news and blog articles written about that topic.
Alternatively, users can type a query into a search bar, with results coming up in a list, displaying a title, thumbnail image, time of publication and short description.
This is not the only new feature Qwant has launched in recent months. Earlier this year, Qwant launched a child-friendly version designed for children aged between 3 and 12 years old.
Qwant is a French search engine that was launched in 2013. Unlike most search engines, it does not track users’ online activities. It handled 1.6 billion searches last year – less than half the number that Google deals with in one day.
Indian e-commerce companies to judge credit score on past purchases
The Indian e-commerce websites Paytm and Snapdeal have announced that they have developed a system to judge a person’s credit score based on their past online transactions.
The system will be especially for useful for assessing the credit score of young Indians who may not yet have a traditional credit score from their bank due to their age.
Paytm and Snapdeal will be able to assess a person’s credit score within 15 seconds, meaning they will know almost immediately whether or not they are eligible for a loan.
A spokesperson from Paytm explained on the new feature, saying: “In the instance when a customer does not have a previous credit history, we will evaluate their mobile phone bill payment for credit worthiness.”
Russian B2C e-commerce market set to grow
Research by yStats has predicted that the Russian B2C e-commerce market will grow, despite the general economic situation worsening in the country.
B2C e-commerce sales in Russia are set to increase at twice the rate seen in most other countries.
Non-central regions of Russia are expected to lead this trend. The remote Russian region of Siberia saw its B2C sales double in the space of last year alone.
Cross-border e-commerce is also expected to see strong growth. Cross-border e-commerce currently accounts for a third of all B2C e-commerce in the country, is worth 5 billion US dollars and grew at a rate of 70% last year.
Several big companies have recently noticed the huge potential in the Russian cross-border e-commerce market.
In June, the Chinese e-commerce giant JD announced that it would be entering the Russian market.
Its rival Alibaba also recently launched a Russian website, which has been a huge success. Alibaba Russia has around 20 million monthly users, making it one of the top 10 most popular websites in Russia.
The Russian e-commerce site Ozon also announced that it will start allowing European and Chinese merchants to sell on its site later this year.
Most popular apps in South Korea revealed
Games apps are the most popular type of app in South Korea, according to research by Nielsen KoreanClick.
South Koreans spend 22% of their time on apps using gaming apps, followed by multimedia apps which take up 20% of people’s app time, and communications apps which account for 18% of app usage.
The local app Kakao Talk was the most popular communications app, followed by Facebook and Daum.
Alibaba buys stake in Suning
And finally, Alibaba has spent 28 billion Yuan, equivalent to 4.6 billion US dollars, on a 20% stake in the electronics company Suning. It is the Chinese tech giant’s biggest deal to date.
The two companies will work together to streamline online ordering and deliveries, with the aim of delivering Suning electronics products to customers within 2 hours of ordering.
The move comes as a direct challenge to Alibaba’s rival JD, which has traditionally dominated in the Chinese electronics e-commerce market.
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Gemma Houghton
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