Global Marketing News – 11th September 2015
India and Indonesia targeted for Baidu expansion
The Chinese search giant Baidu is looking to expand into India and Indonesia.
Baidu has selected these countries due to their rapidly increasing smartphone populations, as the search engine aims to boost its mobile presence.
The search giant has said it will “invest” in these countries, although the exact details are yet to be revealed.
Baidu is turning its attentions overseas as the smartphone market in China slows down, with smartphone shipments dipping for the first time in 6 years last quarter. In contrast, India’s smartphone shipments increased by a staggering 44% last quarter.
Baidu is also facing stiff competition in the Chinese tech industry from its rivals Tencent and Alibaba, which dominate the Chinese social messaging and ecommerce markets respectively.
Gaption to enter the Philippines, Singapore and Australia
The Malaysian social network Gaption has announced it wants to enter the Philippines, Singapore and Australia in the next 2 years.
Gaption was created in June this year and currently has 20,000 users, mainly from Malaysia, the US and Europe.
Gaption allows users to earn money if they post content that leads to another user clicking on an ad. It also has an integrated ecommerce platform, allowing users to post advertisements that appear in followers’ newsfeeds.
A spokesperson from Gaption outlined the social network’s aim, saying: “We want to make it possible for anybody to do business without the need for any technical knowledge or having to spend excessive amounts of money”.
The social network aims to reach over 10 million users in the next 2 years, with a target monthly revenue of 900,000 US dollars within the same time period.
Australians put up with “intrusive” mobile ads for free content
Smartphone users in Australia find mobile advertising intrusive, but admit that it does bring them certain advantages, according to research by Deloitte.
Around 80% of respondents, across all age groups, said they found mobile advertising to be more intrusive than ads on TV and on their desktops.
However, half did admit that they were willing to accept these intrusive ads as if it gave them access to content for free. Younger people, aged under 30, were especially willing to see ads in exchange for free content.
Location-based ads were less popular, though, with under 40% saying they were willing to receive these kinds of ads.
The Australian mobile advertising market is worth an estimated 1.4 billion US dollars, with mobile ads accounting for around 30% of digital ad spending and 13% of overall ad spending.
WP Group launches ecommerce delivery service Skybox
The Thai ecommerce company WP Group has launched an ecommerce delivery service called Skybox.
Skybox sends items between Skytrain stations within 24 hours, meaning that users can simply click-and-collect items quickly and easily.
WP Group says that using Skybox is quicker and more reliable than getting items delivered to a buyer’s home.
There are currently 6 Skytrain stations in Thailand, although the ecommerce company has said this will increase to 100 by the end of the year.
It also plans to open 50 Skytrain stations in other South-East Asian countries within the same time period.
Smile Telecoms to expand to Congo
And finally, the mobile telecoms company Smile Telecoms has announced it will expand into the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It has raised 365 million US dollars in funding, which it will use to build the mobile internet infrastructure in Congo.
A spokesperson from the company has commented on the expansion, saying: “The availability of a reliable high-speed, broadband internet service in the country will help businesses and individuals become more productive and efficient, and this in itself is an economic enabler.”
Smile Telecoms already operates 4G networks in Nigeria, Uganda or Tanzania, where it competes with Orange, Telefonica, Airtel and MTN.
Internet capacity is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world. Africa is a key frontier for future internet growth, with the 1 billion threshold for mobile subscription edging ever closer.
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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