Global Marketing News – 26th July 2016
UK is Europe’s biggest driver of site traffic from social media
According to research from Adobe, the UK is the largest driver of website traffic through social engagement.
Adobe’s Europe Best of the Best 2015 Report said that UK brands drove the most consumers on to webpages through social media, with the average website traffic rate being 4.6%.
Compared to this, German brands only achieved a rate of 0.5%, whilst French brands achieved 0.69%.
Another section of the study looked at the amount of brands in each country that used social media, with Sweden coming out on top, with 33% using Snapchat and 51% using Instagram, making them the most “socially savvy”.
Meanwhile, the UK led the way again with 45% of brands using Twitter, whilst in France a massive 92% used Facebook; the most widely used platform across the continent.
Facebook was the most effective platform, with 90% of consumers saying they used it to follow their favourite brands.
France criticises Windows 10 privacy settings
French data authorities have criticised Microsoft over the privacy settings on its Windows 10 operating system.
After complaints that the system breached the Data Protection Act in France, the country’s National Data Protection Commission said that it found “many failures” in how the system protects users’ details.
The commission said that Microsoft’s collection of data is “not necessary for the operation of the service”, and that it is done “without consent”.
Data was also found to be transferred outside the EU, despite a decision by the European Court of Justice banning this.
Harmit Kambo, campaigns director at Privacy International, said it was “unacceptable” to collect “data without consent”, and companies should be “called to account”.
Microsoft now has three months to comply, but has said that it will “work closely” with the commission.
Macy’s launches mobile shopping assistant
The Macy’s department store in the US has launched a mobile shopping assistant designed to help shoppers as they make their way through the shop.
Named “Macy’s On Call”, the service is available in ten stores across the US and is currently at the pilot stage.
Created in association with IBM’s Watson platform, customers can use the app to ask questions about the shop or find a particular department.
Macy’s On Call uses a form of artificial intelligence to allow it to act as a sales assistant, answering questions using natural language and providing feedback.
Macy’s Group Vice President of Digital Media Strategy, Serena Potter, said that it wanted to “improve the shopping experience”, whilst also announcing that the app would soon be adding a Spanish language feature.
Apple revenues in China likely to fall 20%
Baidu has released a report suggesting that Apple is likely to see its revenues in China fall by up to 20%.
Using the number of map queries for Apple stores made through its Baidu Maps service, it found that in Q1 2016 queries had declined by 24.5% year-on-year.
The number also matches up with the 26% decline in Apple’s revenue in China.
Baidu said that the maps correlation was “impressively strong”, whilst claiming that the map query data meant it was possible to “’nowcast’ the company’s revenues and reveal the future trends.”
Apple has been struggling in China recently due to cheaper, local competition from brands such as Huawei, Vivo and Oppo.
Facebook successfully tests internet-beaming drone
And finally, Facebook has tested a drone intended to provide internet to remote areas of the world.
After the Aquila drone’s first successful flight of 96 minutes on 28th June, Facebook has said that it intends to build a fleet of planes that will help provide an internet connection to millions of people in remote places such as sub-Saharan Africa.
Jay Parikh, Facebook’s head of engineering and infrastructure, said that the next tests will push the drone “above 60,000 feet”.
The drone is eventually due to be able to fly for three months non-stop, using laser technology to connect remote areas of the world to the internet.
Webcertain’s global marketing news bulletins are daily 5-minute videos, providing marketers with the latest international digital marketing news in an easy-to-digest format.
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