25 February 2015 – Global Marketing News
Yandex triggers investigation against Google in Russia
The search engine Yandex has asked Russia’s anti-monopoly regulator to investigate Google over whether its Android operating system is unfairly blocking other search engines on Android phones.
Google is set as the default search engine on all Android phones, and handset manufacturers are unable to preinstall alternative search providers.
With Android being the most popular operating system in Russia, accounting for 86% of all Russian smartphones, Yandex is concerned that Google’s practices are unfair and illegal under Russia’s antitrust laws.
A spokesperson for Yandex has said: “We believe that device manufacturers should have a choice as to which search provider to set as the default or which services to have preinstalled on the device. Google should not prevent manufacturers from preinstalling competitor apps. This is why we are talking about the need to unbundle Google’s Android operating system from Google Search and its other end-user services.”
Yandex is the most popular search engine in Russia, with a 60% market share on desktop. However, this falls to just 44% on Android.
Rocket Internet buys Kuwaiti food delivery company Talabat
The German ecommerce giant Rocket Internet has bought the Kuwaiti food delivery company Talabat for 170 million US dollars.
Talabat, which was founded in 2004, is the largest food delivery company in the Middle East, working with 1,300 restaurants and covering Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain.
Rocket Internet’s acquisition of Talabat is its 10th acquisition of a food delivery company, having also recently bought 9 other such companies in Asia.
The CEO of Rocket Internet commented on the acquisition, saying: “The Middle East is one of the most attractive markets with significant growth potential and highly attractive earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization margins. The acquisition of Talabat.com is another important step in our long-term global Food and Groceries strategy.”
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Online fraud increases with ecommerce uptake
A report by the business intelligence company yStats has revealed that as uptake of ecommerce increases across the globe, online fraud has increased too.
This online fraud is affecting uptake of ecommerce for some people, with the research showing that over a third of people globally who do not buy online are put off by the risk of online fraud.
Suspicion of ecommerce is highest in Europe and amongst over-35s, whilst younger online shoppers and people in the USA and China were less afraid of online fraud.
The report found that fraud has also spread to mobile shopping. However, this has prompted the rapid development of mobile online security features including device ID, ID authentication and secure mobile payment methods.
Digital video trends in Europe show North-South divide
There is a North-South divide in Europe surrounding digital video trends, according to research by E-Marketer.
People in Italy and Spain watch more digital video content than their northern counterparts in France and Germany. People in Italy and Spain were also more likely to watch video content on their mobiles rather than on a computer or tablet.
However, French and German consumers were more willing to pay for video content. E-Marketer put this down to southern Europeans having less disposable income.
Baidu creates migration map over Chinese New Year
And finally, China’s most popular search engine, Baidu, has created a map showing the movement of people over Chinese New Year.
The Year of the Goat started on 19th February and it is traditional for Chinese people to celebrate the New Year by returning to their hometowns and spending time with their families.
This annual migration is the largest human migration in the world, with around 3 billion trips estimated to take place over the 40-day New Year period.
Baidu’s mobile software is tracking location data from Chinese users and using this information to create the map, which shows how people are moving around the country.
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