Global Marketing News – 10th June 2015
New opportunities in Russia as Yandex launches music service
The Russian internet giant Yandex has launched a new service called Yandex.Radio.
Yandex.Radio is a music service containing over 100 radio stations of different genres.
Yandex.Radio actively learns what type of music a user prefers in different situations by analysing their past music choices. Users can skip tracks and give them a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down to help speed up this learning process.
Yandex.Radio is the second music-based service that Yandex has released. The first, Yandex.Music, is a database of 20 million tracks and allows users to search for the music they want to listen to.
Yandex has commented on the launch of Yandex.Radio, which is available on desktop, iOS and Android, saying: “Yandex.Radio and Yandex.Music complement each other: Yandex.Music allows users to discover something new, while Yandex.Radio provides tracks to suit any situation. Yandex.Radio is what one needs when they aren’t looking for something specific, but simply want music that would suit their mood – whether they want to unwind, or get an energy boost.”
Audio ads will be available to advertisers interested in targeting the Yandex.Radio audience.
Research reveals most important languages to use online
Research by TechCrunch has revealed the most important languages when it comes to localising online content.
With the number of people online growing rapidly, and with these netizens coming from an increasingly wide range of countries, the number of languages required to reach all these users is growing rapidly too.
In 2001, websites had to be in just 13 languages in order to reach 90% of people online. By 2013 this had risen to 21 languages, and by 2020 it is predicted that websites will have to offer their content in 48 languages in order to reach 90% of the online population.
TechCrunch studied 50 companies that had a value of 1 billion US dollars or more and looked at which languages they had localised their websites or apps for.
They found that the most popular languages were English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish – in that order.
The companies with the highest numbers of languages were Tinder, Uber, Jawbone, Box and Pinterest, which were all localised for around 30 languages.
Facebook launches downsized Facebook Lite app
Facebook has launched a downsized version of its app especially for low-end smartphones in emerging markets.
The app, which is called Facebook Lite, takes up just 1 megabyte of space, significantly less than the average app size of 25 megabytes.
The app contains minimal data, only providing users with the essentials such as notifications, messenger, and friend updates. Its small size means that it loads faster than conventional apps.
Aimed at cheap Android smartphone users, the app will be rolled out across parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe over the next few weeks.
Tesco to sell off South Korean business
Tesco is rumoured to be considering selling its successful South Korean business.
Tesco’s Korean arm is worth around 5 billion US dollars and is the supermarket’s most successful international market.
With debts of almost 33 billion US dollars, however, the grocery giant is said to be considering a number of sell-offs in order to bring its finances under control.
Tesco would not comment on whether it was going to sell its South Korea business.
Other businesses it is rumoured to be considering selling-off include Tesco Bank, and it is also set to close almost 45 stores.
Jumei sees strong growth following launch of global ecommerce platform
And finally, the Chinese cosmetics company Jumei has seen strong growth since the launch of its international ecommerce platform Jumei Global.
Jumei Global launched in December 2014 and allows foreign cosmetics companies to sell their products to the Chinese market.
Jumei’s net revenue grew by 51% in the first quarter of this year, up from its 10% growth in the same period last year.
However, with the Chinese government just having lowered import duties, commentators have speculated that Jumei may soon see increased competition from other ecommerce companies such as Alibaba and JD wanting to sell foreign products to the Chinese market.
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.
Immanuel Simonsen
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