Global Marketing News – 22nd January 2016
Start-ups get a rocket fuelled boost with new fund
Rocket Internet has launched a new fund worth 420 million US dollars.
Rocket Internet is famous for helping to launch internet-related companies in new markets based on proven business models.
The new fund will be used to provide capital to start-ups, something that will be in demand as investment for such businesses is becoming increasingly hard to secure thanks to investors being more cautious with their money.
One of its biggest successes, the European fashion site Zalando, recently announced that it saw a 31% rise in profits, despite the unseasonably warm winter.
The clothing company had been anticipating lower than average winter sales and had adjusted its purchases to reflect that.
Google is changing its ranking algorithm
Google is making changes to its ranking algorithm.
Webmasters started noticing traffic and ranking changes last weekend, with many assuming it was down to Google’s much-anticipated Penguin update, which is due to take place this year.
A spokesperson from Google announced that changes were indeed taking place, but that the current changes were to its core algorithm, not Penguin.
It has not revealed exactly what has been changed.
Professional messaging app ChatWork to expand globally
A Japanese start-up that wants to replace traditional email has raised 12.5 million US dollars to expand internationally.
ChatWork is a messaging app for professionals that allows users to message each other individually or as a group, share files, manage tasks and make audio and video calls.
It currently has 86,000 companies using its app, mainly in Japan where it makes up 70% of the business messaging app market.
It plans to use the investment money to expand into the US, India and South East Asia.
It will face competition in the US market where rival app Slack already has a foothold in the market. ChatWork remains confident it will succeed, however, due to its simpler interface and more filtering options, with companies being able to grant clients access to some areas but not others.
Nestle partners with Alibaba to target China
The food company Nestle has announced that it has entered into a partnership with the Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba.
Nestle will sell certain lines of coffee machines, chocolates and milk powders on Alibaba’s Tmall platform.
Tmall, which is owned by Alibaba, is one of the most popular B2C ecommerce platforms in China and takes a cut of the profits when a business sells to a customer.
Nestle has said the key reason behind its entry on Tmall is a drive to reach more customers in rural China.
The Chinese ecommerce market is worth an estimated 359 billion US dollars, and has a digital buyer penetration rate of 62%.
Faster internet speeds for Africa promised
And finally, the internet and telecoms companies SEACOM and Ciena have formed a partnership to deliver faster internet speeds in Africa.
SEACOM launched its undersea internet cable to provide access to the web to the continent in 2009, and its partnership with Ciena will help it to ensure better connections and faster speeds for users.
Internet penetration is low in Africa compared to the rest of the world. SEACOM and Ciena hope that by providing a faster connection this will encourage more Africans to come online.
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There are many things to look forward to. Next update will be quite interesting. Nevertheless, I presume that Google will continue going down the same path, affecting any negative SEO practices. We made an article on this topic. Most experts agree that Google will do their best to improve overall quality for end user. Thank for the post!