Global Marketing News – 8th December 2015
App threatens to shake-up mobile payments in Europe
The banking app Number26 has just expanded into 6 new European countries.
Number26 already operates in Germany and Austria, and will now be expanding into France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Slovakia.
Number26 allows users to open a bank account and get a MasterCard after they have downloaded the app. To open an account, users simply have to make a video call to a Number26 employee and show their passport.
The app works just like a normal bank account, allowing users to deposit and withdraw money as they wish. It also allows users to disable online payments and ATM use via the app if the user suspects their details have been stolen.
Another safety feature is that the app sends push notifications for all activities related to the account. For example, when a user makes a payment using their MasterCard, they receive a message while the card is still in the card reader.
With its focus on safety and ease of use, Number26 has already attracted 80,000 users in Germany and Austria following its launch earlier this year.
It hopes to boost this number even further with its expansion into the new markets, having chosen them for their relatively undeveloped and uncompetitive mobile banking landscapes.
Baidu Music merges with Taihe Entertainment Group
The Chinese internet giant Baidu has announced the merger of its Baidu Music service with the music label Taihe Entertainment Group.
The merger means that all of Taihe’s estimated 700,000 music tracks will now be available on Baidu Music, giving the latter a huge boost and an edge over its competitors.
The Chinese online music market is currently worth almost 14 billion yuan, equivalent to 2.1 billion US dollars.
The music market in the country is hotting up at the moment, with Baidu’s rivals Alibaba and Tencent both pushing their own online music services.
Baidu Music currently has 150 million monthly active users.
Flipkart seeks to improve deliveries with MapMyIndia
Flipkart, one of India’s leading ecommerce sites, has bought a minority share in MapMyIndia.
MapMyIndia provides GPS navigation, mobile maps and location data for cars.
Flipkart hopes that the partnership will help it to track its packages, verify addresses and deter thieves from taking packages.
A recent report by Goldman Sachs predicted that the Indian ecommerce market will be worth over 100 billion US dollars by 2020, making it a hugely lucrative market for companies wanting to sell their goods online.
Despite this, however, the country’s package distribution infrastructure still needs major development, making package delivery an area of fierce competition amongst Indian ecommerce sites trying to get the edge over each other.
Flipkart has said it will be spending up to 4 billion US dollars to develop its logistics network over the next 5 years.
Lesara to launch 16 new European ecommerce sites
And finally, the German fashion retailer Lesara is to launch ecommerce sites targeting 16 new European markets.
Lesara currently sells affordable, fashionable clothing in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Its latest international push will see it entering 16 new European countries, including ecommerce-hungry nations such as the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Spain.
The fashion retailer is able to fund the expansion having recently received investment of 15 million Euros from venture capital company North Zone.
The European fashion ecommerce market is currently very fragmented, with different retailers coming top in different nations. Recent research by TextMaster and Similar Web revealed that Zalando was the most popular fashion website in Germany and Italy, with Next taking the top spot in the UK and La Redoute coming top in France.
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Gemma Houghton
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