Global Marketing News – 17th August 2015
Google gets reprieve in EU anti-trust case
The EU has extended the deadline for Google to respond to anti-trust charges.
Google stands accused of deploying tactics to boost the ranking of its own services, whilst pushing rival services offered by competitors further down the search results by demoting the value of their links or simply refusing to list them altogether.
Google was originally told it had to respond to these charges by 18th August, however, this has now been extended to the end of the month.
A spokesperson from the EU said the deadline had been extended to allow Google to “fully exercise its rights of defence”.
If the charges against Google are successful, the search engine may be forced to pay fines of up to 10% of its revenue, which could total as much as 6.6 billion US dollars.
Facebook advertising struggling in India
Facebook has admitted that it is struggling to attract advertisers onto its platform in India.
India is Facebook’s second biggest market, with 132 million registered users, second only to the US which has 193 million users.
Its problem with advertising becomes clear when comparing the amount of money that Facebook makes in the two markets, however. While the social network makes an average of 8 US dollars per user in the US in advertising revenue, it makes only 15 cents per user in India.
In order to encourage more Indian businesses to advertise on the platform, Facebook is offering features such as free online support for questions regarding advertising.
Earlier this year, it has also launched a new advertising feature especially for India, which allows users to click on an ad to call a business and then hang up before incurring a charge, with the business then calling the user back.
With around 65 small-to-medium sized businesses operating in India, but only 1.5 million of these currently having Facebook pages, the potential for Facebook’s advertising business to grow in this market is huge.
Analysts have commented on the issue, saying that the problem Facebook faces is that social media is simply not considered as a marketing tool in the country.
TV advertising remains the preferred method for advertisers, meaning that Facebook need to work to promote itself as a viable competitor if it is to succeed.
Preferred payment options across Europe
Research by yStats has revealed how preferred payment options are evolving in Europe.
The report found that online credit card payments were the general preferred payment option in Western Europe.
The exceptions to this rule were Germany, where invoices and direct debits were the preferred payment option, and the Netherlands, where the local banking method iDEAL reigned supreme.
In Eastern Europe, a different, more diverse pattern emerged.
In Belarus and the Czech Republic, cash-on-delivery was the preferred payment option; in Hungary, cash or card on delivery was preferred; in Poland, people preferred to pay using an online bank transfer; and in Russia, online credit card payments were the most popular payment option.
Across all of Europe, mobile payments were on the increase, with mobile payments being most popular in Turkey.
In the UK, mobile payments also increased in popularity. Apple Pay launched in the country earlier this year, although most British people preferred to use more established alternatives such as PayPal or their own bank.
Russia bans Reddit webpages
And finally, the Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor has said that it has banned several pages on the social site Reddit.
The pages in question are to do with how to grow hallucinogenic mushrooms, which are banned in the country.
Roskomnadzor has previously threatened to ban the entire Reddit site.
This is just the latest social network to come under scrutiny from the Russian authorities.
In May this year, Roskomnadzor threatened to fine and block Google, Facebook and Twitter for allegedly breaking the Russian “blogging law”, which states that bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers must register their real identities with the Russian government.
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Cal O'Connell
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