Global Marketing News – 16th October 2015
Pakistan offers next big ecommerce opportunity
The ecommerce market is growing rapidly in Pakistan.
Currently just 3% of Pakistanis engage in ecommerce, spending around 30 million US dollars a year. This figure is expected to explode to 600 million US dollars within just 2 years, however, with levels of growth being described as “exponential”.
The rapid growth is being put down to several factors, including rising internet penetration, the falling price of smartphones in the country and improved infrastructure.
Around 30 million people have internet access in Pakistan at the moment, out of a population of around 180 million. This is expected to hit 56 million by 2019, however, when 28% of the population are predicted to have access to the internet.
This is expected to be fuelled by a boom in affordable smartphones sold in the country from Chinese manufacturers.
Top countries for social media in Asia Pacific revealed
Research by TNS Global has revealed that Malaysia and Thailand are the top countries for social messaging app and social network usage in the Asia Pacific region.
A staggering 77% of internet users in Malaysia use social messaging apps on a daily basis, more than the global average of 55% and way above the 35% seen in the US.
The most popular messaging apps in Malaysia are WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat.
Looking at social networks, Thailand came top of the list, with 78% of internet users in the country using social media on a daily basis, compared to a global average of 48%.
The most popular social networks in the country are Facebook, Instagram and Google+.
Baidu to invest $20 million in online groceries
The Chinese internet giant Baidu has announced that it will invest 20 million US dollars in the online groceries company Womai.
Online grocery shopping is growing in popularity in China, with Womai being one of the leading websites in the niche market.
Womai has secured 200 million US dollars’ worth of investment in its latest funding round, and has said it will use the money to improve the company’s logistics infrastructure and delivery systems.
A commentator from the Chinese internet industry has commented on the importance of online grocery shopping, saying: “Fresh produce is gaining popularity with consumers. Once Internet firms manage to turn regular buyers of fresh produce into active users of their websites, they can sell these consumers other more expensive items.”
Earlier this year, Baidu said that it will be investing over 3 billion US dollars in online-to-offline services in the next 3 years, and according to CEO Robin Li, the company’s future lies in services, rather than searching.
Online-to-offline services are those which allow users to do a real-world activity online, such as taxi-hailing, ticket-booking and food delivery apps.
Most popular websites in Slovenia revealed
News, classifieds and health websites are the most popular types of websites in Slovenia, according to research by Gemius.
The research, which looked at websites visited by Slovenians in August 2015, found that two news websites and a classified ads website took the top three places, with 47%, 40% and 36% of internet users visiting the websites respectively.
Two health and medicine websites also made it into the top 10, as did a website about cars.
Vietnamese fashion industry embraces tech
And finally, the Vietnamese fashion industry used cutting edge technology in its latest annual fashion show, which took place last week.
The Vietnamese fashion site Zalora had all items that were showcased in its fashion show on its website, with users being able to click and order items in real-time as the show progressed.
Fashion lovers who were at the show were also able to scan a QR code or download an app in order to view product information and place orders.
The vast majority, over 90%, of Vietnam’s internet users access the web using a smartphone, and the number of smartphone users is growing fast.
Last year, the Vietnamese smartphone market grew by 24%, and with only around a third of people currently having a smartphone in the country, there is still plenty of room for future growth.
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Cal O'Connell
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