Global Marketing News – 9th December 2015
Top Chinese messaging app WeChat accused of censorship… again
The Chinese social messaging app WeChat has been accused yet again of censoring the car app company Uber.
WeChat has admitted to blocking all of Uber’s accounts on the app, as well as accounts that promote Uber, claiming that these accounts broke WeChat’s terms of service by engaging in “malicious marketing activities” and collecting users’ personal information.
WeChat’s parent company Tencent has invested a large amount of money in Uber’s main rival in China, Didi Kuaidi, making many question whether the company’s decision to block Uber on its platform is really about protecting users or simply another example of the censorship that already plagues China’s internet space.
This is not the first time that WeChat has been accused of censoring its rival Uber. In October it was accused of censoring positive news about Uber whilst boosting negative news about the company.
There was also a so-called technical glitch in July which meant that searching for the word “Uber” in WeChat brought up zero results.
WeChat is the most popular social messaging app in China, with more than 600 million monthly active users.
Deutsche Post launches new cross-border delivery feature
The German postal service Deutsche Post has launched a new service aimed at businesses sending low-value items across borders.
The service, named Ländernachweis, allows both senders and recipients to track the location of a parcel via the use of a radio frequency ID tag.
The service is available to German businesses and individuals sending low-value items to Switzerland, the US, and 14 EU counties including ecommerce-hungry nations such as the UK, France, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Indian advertising spend to increase by 13% in 2016
Advertising spend is predicted to increase by 13% in India next year, according to research by ZenithOptimedia.
Traditional print advertising spend is expected to increase by 10%, with television ad spend set to increase by 15% and online ad spend by 20%.
Ecommerce and mobile phones are expected to be the driving force behind this rise in advertising spend, with the Indian advertising market being predicted to grow by 3 billion US dollars between now and 2018.
The news comes as the country makes a big step in improving its internet infrastructure. A new internet gateway is expected to open this month, meaning that there will be increased capacity to connect more people to the internet.
Brand loyalty landscape in Japan revealed
Research by Epsilon has revealed the brand loyalty landscape in Japan.
The research revealed that credit card companies and ecommerce sites attracted the highest levels of loyalty, with 40% of respondents saying they were loyal to their credit card and ecommerce providers.
Car brands also attracted high levels of loyalty, with 36% of respondents saying they were loyal to their car manufacturer.
However, the research found that just because a customer was loyal to a brand, it didn’t mean they were likely to buy more products from that brand.
Respondents were especially willing to shop around for cheaper alternatives in the clothing, restaurant and grocery categories.
Google launches wi-fi network in Uganda
And finally, Google has launched a Wi-Fi network in the Ugandan capital of Kampala.
The network is free to internet providers, who then charge customers to use the service.
The Wi-Fi network is currently up and running in around 120 different locations in the city, and there are plans to expand this to even more locations in the future.
This is not the first internet project that Google has run in the country. Earlier this year, it chose the country to be the pilot for its Google Link project, which involved laying fibre optic cables to improve internet access in the country.
Only 8.5 million Ugandans currently have access to the internet, equivalent to around 23% of the population.
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