Global Marketing News – 29th June 2016
New rules for Chinese search engines revealed
The Chinese internet regulator has introduced new rules governing how search engines must operate in the country.
The new rules state that search engines must provide “objective, fair and authoritative results”, and that these organic results must not harm the interests of the public, legal organisations or the Chinese nation.
The rules also state that search engines must limit the number of ads that appear in the search engine results pages, and that these ads must be clearly labelled so that users can differentiate them from organic results.
The rules have been introduced due to persistent complaints of confusion between paid and organic results in China, as well as in response to a recent investigation into the main search engine Baidu, after the death of a user who found misleading medical information via the site.
The rules will apply to all search engines operating in China. The main Chinese search engines are Baidu, Haosou and Sogou.
EU-US Privacy Shield final amends agreed
Final changes to the EU-US Privacy Shield have been agreed upon by both sides.
The new system is set to replace the old Safe Harbour data sharing agreement between the United States and the EU, after it was ruled ‘inadequate’ by the European Court of Justice in 2013, following Edward Snowden revealing the details of the NSA’s access to European citizens’ data.
The EU-US Privacy Shield will do more to protect EU citizens’ data from mass surveillance.
Under the agreement, the US government will need to create an ombudsman whose role it will be to deal with European complaints about US spying. In the interests of fairness and impartiality, this ombudsman will not be allowed to be from the national security services.
The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence will also need to provide a written promise that the US will not subject EU citizens’ online data to mass surveillance.
There will also be restrictions on how much data the US will be able to gather in the first place. Under the new agreement, bulk data sharing will only be allowed in specific circumstances and this data will have to be in its most specific and targeted form.
Companies will also be required to delete data that is no longer needed.
The EU-US Privacy Shield will be subject to yearly reviews to make sure the system is working as it should be.
If all EU member states agree to this new pact, it is expected to take effect in July.
eBay teams up with MallForAfrica
eBay has teamed up with MallForAfrica to launch a website helping American eBay users to sell to African consumers.
The ebay.mallforafrica.com site will feature products posted on the American eBay site, with payment and logistics being handled by MallForAfrica.
The site will initially only target Nigeria, before being expanded to Kenya and Ghana later this year.
The African ecommerce market is growing rapidly and is expected to be worth over 75 billion US dollars by 2025, according to research by McKinsey Global Institute.
Online ad spending rises in the Middle East
And finally, ad spend is rising in the Middle East as internet penetration skyrockets in the region.
A study by Orient Planet Research predicts that spending on online ads in the Middle East will rise by 25% this year, and that the region will see rates of increase higher than the global average for the next 5 years.
A key factor driving this increase in online advertising is the region’s rising internet penetration.
The study predicts that there will be 197 million internet users in the Middle East by 2017.
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Gemma Houghton
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