Global Marketing News – 12th April 2016
New Indian ecommerce regulations could spell trouble for Amazon
The ecommerce giant Amazon could be facing legal trouble in India.
In the last month, India has implemented new regulations regarding ecommerce, meaning that Amazon is now breaching these rules and could potentially face penalties.
The new regulations state that no single seller on an ecommerce site is allowed to account for more than a quarter of all sales on that site.
This is a problem for Amazon, whose biggest seller on its Indian site accounts for around 45% of all sales, putting it well above the 25% threshold.
Amazon has complained about the lack of time it was given to make adjustments before the new rules came into place, and the relative lack of control it has over how popular its sellers’ products are.
It has criticised the Indian government for not providing enough clear guidance on how it is meant to implement the new regulations.
Spanish ecommerce market sees great improvements
The Spanish ecommerce market is improving, according to research by CNMC.
Ecommerce sales in Q3 2015 in the country were up by a staggering 29% on the same time period the previous year, hitting 5.3 million Euros for the first time ever.
The top ecommerce categories in Spain are travel agencies and tour operators, which account for 21% of all ecommerce sales; airlines, which account for 13%; and clothing, which accounts for 6%.
Cross-border ecommerce is popular in Spain, with domestic ecommerce sales only narrowly exceeding cross-border ecommerce sales.
Spain has an internet penetration rate of 74%, equivalent to 35 million people.
UK achieves “superfast” broadband goal
The UK has hit its target for faster broadband speeds that it pledged in 2010.
The internet information company Thinkbroadband has revealed that 90% of British homes now have “superfast” broadband, defined as speeds over 24Mbps.
This puts the UK on track to hits its target of 95% superfast broadband coverage by 2017.
Thinkbroadband has identified two issues, however. The first is that getting superfast broadband to the remaining 10% may be challenging as they are in rural areas. The second problem is that what is considered “superfast” has gone up since the 24Mbps threshold was set in 2010.
So far, the UK has pursued a “fibre to the cabinet” approach. Thinkbroadband and Ofcom both think that in order to get truly fast broadband, this will have to switch to a “fibre to the home” approach.
The UK has an internet penetration rate of 90%, equivalent to 57 million people.
Ecommerce site for farmers launches in Indonesia
The Indonesian government has launched a national ecommerce site for farmers.
The site will allow farmers to sell their produce online, reducing the inconvenience, time and expense associated with distribution chains.
The government predicts that it will increase profits for farmers and decrease cost for buyers by 15%.
The Indonesian ecommerce market is growing rapidly and is expected to be worth 4.5 billion US dollars in 2016.
Alibaba AI successfully predicts results of Chinese reality TV show
And finally, Alibaba’s AI has successfully predicted the results of a Chinese reality TV show.
The AI correctly predicted which contestants made it into the final of I’m A Singer, an extremely popular Chinese singing contest, and also correctly predicted the winner.
It used data such as chatter on social media, the singer’s voice pitch and energy, the live response of the studio audience and choice of song.
A spokesperson from Alibaba commented on the AI’s success, saying they were very pleased with the results and adding that: “The results demonstrated that AI is making significant progress to understand human emotions and how people make decisions.”
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Gemma Houghton
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