Global Marketing News – 24th May 2016
Naver affiliate files lawsuit against Kakao
An affiliate of Naver, NHN Entertainment, has filed a law suit against Kakao for violating its patented mobile technology.
The suit, which was filed with Seoul Central District Court, comes with NHN’s claims that Kakao refused to pay a fair amount for using its technology, upon demand.
The technology in question is the programming interface developed by NHN’s subsidiary, K-Innovation, which allows users to link their mobile game account with a messenger or social media app.
Expected to take up to two or three years, the suit could be worth around 20 billion US dollars, as patent fees can total 10 percent of annual revenue.
However, the case may continue after that, because if NHN were to win this suit, they could then target Facebook or messenger app LINE under the same infringement.
Goxip app gets $1.6 million funding
A start-up app from Hong Kong has won 1.6 million US dollars of seed funding, after being named the best ‘breakthrough’ app, at the Rise conference last year.
Goxip, developed by Juliette Gimenez, is described as a “shoppable Instagram” allowing users to follow and view images of celebrities, just like the image based app.
However, where Goxip differs from Instagram is that it then identifies the clothing in each image, before pointing you towards similar, but affordable clothes online.
The idea has pulled in interest from Thai company, Ardent Capital and from Chrysies Tan, who both make up the majority of the new investment.
Gimenez hopes to pull in one million users by the end of year, before launching a marketplace feature, allowing independent designers to link up to the app.
Mexico to reach 60 million internet users in 2016
Mexico is due to reach over 60 million internet users by the end of year, according to the Competitive Intelligence Unit.
This would be an 11% increase on 2015, meaning that over half of Mexico’s population would be connected to the internet.
The increased penetration rate is largely due to the combination of a broadband network expansion in the country, plus improved deals from telecommunications companies.
There was 3.7 billion US dollars’ worth of investment into the industry last year, which has driven growth in the fixed line sector by over 50%.
Tencent online advertising revenue rises
Following investment into the broadcast of entertainment content and NBA games, Tencent has seen a huge surge in online advertising revenue.
In the first quarter of this year, the company’s net income increased by a third to an all-time high of 1.4 billion US dollars.
The move to stream NBA content in particular, has attracted big-budget advertisers to the service allowing for an online advertising revenue increase of 73%, even though the Chinese economy is currently slowing.
Analysts at RHB Research Institute in Hong Kong noted that the “advertising is rising at a much faster pace than the rest of the company.”
Creepy face-recognition app FindFace gaining popularity in Russia
And finally, a new Russian face-recognition app, called FindFace, has amassed half a million users in its first two months.
Users can take a picture of a crowd, and then the app will identify people in the image by linking to profile pictures on social networking site, VK.
The designers say that people in the street, advertisers or the police could find your social network profile with just one image.
It could also revolutionise online dating, where the designers stated that “if yousee someone you like, you can photograph them and find their identity”, or users could even use a photo of a “movie star or an ex, and then find 10 girls who look similar”.
Whilst the app has been criticised, the designers say that “a person should understand that in the modern world he is under the spotlight of technology. You just have to live with that.”
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Cal O'Connell
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