We Are Social Asia Tuesday TuneUp #96
In India Chat apps are up and SMS is down
With the growing popularity of online messaging apps, mobile users in India are becoming less dependent on SMS. According to Nielsen, Indians now only send average two SMS per day. It’s a big drop as compared to nine SMS sent per day in mid 2011. Whereas average time spent on chat apps like Nimbuzz, Viber and Whatsapp show an uprising trend. The average time spent increased by 4 times over the past 2 years. The popularity of chat apps will only be stronger with the fast growing number of smartphone users in India. Is this the death of SMS?
Vietnam Facebook users doubled over the past year to over 22 million
It’s been four years since Vietnam started restricting Facebook but most users are still able to access Facebook quite easily via DNS tweaks or using HotSpotShield. Thanks to the relatively casual block, Vietnam has now over 22 million users on Facebook . With 71% penetration of the total internet population, it’s the nation’s top social media overtaking Zing which has been dominating the social networks sphere in Vietnam for a last few years. The current Facebook number is more than double as compared to last year’s 8.5 million. This makes Vietnam the fastest growing Facebook country in the world. Global brands are definitely eyeing the Vietnamese Facebook market.
Mogujie to attract merchants from Taobao with the new open platform
China’s Pinterest like service Mogujie has launched an open platform for e-sellers with an attempt to attract merchants from Taobao marketplace. As a shopping oriented social platform targeting young females that are passionate about fashion and online shopping, Mogujie has strengthened integration with e-commerce sites like Taobao while still remaining true to its roots. Through the new open platform, it expects to have a fully fledged store on the site supporting both consumer-to-consumer and brand-based stores. It also allows integration between Mogujie store and a merchant’s Taobao shop. Will Mogujie’s venture into e-commerce impact on how giants like Taobao shape its way to service their consumers?
Facebook adds four times the purchase intent of TV alone
Confectionery giant Mondelez has discovered with its Creme Egg Facebook activity that the social network adds four times the purchase intent of marketing than through TV alone. As an FMCG brand that requires high reach within specific sectors, they used targeted advertising on posts to ensure that their campaign reached 15 million people in total, with 6 million of those from mobile. Via Facebook, they received 18% brand consideration and 21% unique reach beyond TV.
Marketers planning to increase social spending
A survey by Advertiser Perceptions has discovered that over half of the marketers they surveyed were planning to increase their digital budget, well above traditional channels. Social media came in at number one, with 47% planning to increase and just 7% to decrease, followed by video with 40% and 9% in those two categories.
Facebook changing News feed targeting
Facebook has announced that it will be making changes to how news feed advertising is targeted. Their announcement places its emphasis on the increased attention to consumer feedback, including when ads are hidden; this will manifest itself for marketers such that, when users hide posts about electronics, they receive less content about that subject.
Facebook allows edits to shared posts
Facebook is now allowing users to edit posts once they have shared them, much like the functionality already available for comments. Fears surrounding the possibility that users could ‘bait and switch’ each other (editing the content of a message to alter the sense of another’s reply) have been abated by the success of the comments system. Share editing is currently available on Android and web, with plans to expand to iOS imminently.
Autofill with Facebook for m-commerce
Facebook is set to launch an m-commerce service that allows users to ‘autofill’ their information from their Facebook profile when making transactions on their mobile, starting with partners Paypal, Strype and Braintree. Deb Liu, payments product manager at Facebook, said of the system:
Mobile is where the conversion gap is, where our customers are going in the future. It’s really important to make this an amazing mobile product. That said, we don’t rule out ever doing this on desktop some day.
Introducing Twitter alerts
Twitter is attempting to expand on the fact that it is a key source of news during times of crisis, by introducing a functionality called ‘Twitter alerts’. The feature will allow users to sign up for alerts from a particular account (so far including NGOs, law enforcement agencies and the like) so that, whenever that page labels something as an ‘alert’, the user in question receives a notifying SMS. The network highlights the way in which these should be used in a separate blog post, listing some instances that it might be appropriate, such as in a natural disaster or evacuation alert, taking inspiration from the ways in which the network has been used during these events in the past. One of the examples given for a potential alert is the FEMA tweet below:
#Isaac tip: Phone lines may be congested after a storm, so update your social networks or text family/friends to say you’re OK.
— FEMA (@fema) August 27, 2012
Twitter and the NFL to sell video ads together
Twitter has recently attained a string of partners in the search for high-quality video content for selling advertising, and their latest acquisition may be the biggest yet: the NFL. As fans are so keen for available video content, the fact that a number of promoted tweets will be run each day by the NFL, mentioning sponsors and containing video content with pre-roll ads, means the deal could prove lucrative for all involved.McDonalds has been announced alongside Verizon as one of the brands involved.
Google includes hashtags in search
Google has created a feature that will allow users to search hashtags within the main Google search engine and receive relevant Google+ content by doing so. Provided a post is public, it will appear in searches for any hashtag included, with a scrollable bar to look through results. Rival networks will have their hashtags appear too, though this will be at the bottom of a separate page, with G+ given priority.
YouTube comments are changing
YouTube comments are changing to appear more like their equivalents on Google+. Previously, comments have been ordered chronologically, which made it difficult to see the most engaging or relevant content, including the likes of comments by the video’s original creator. Now, an algorithm will rank comments in terms of their relevance, similar to how the system works on G+, and comments will tie into users Google+ profiles.
Pinterest updates article pins
Pinterest has updated its pins for articles, citing the fact that over 5 million articles are pinned on the site each day. Now, the pins will include more information, including the heading, author, description and link, plus there is a new ‘reading list board’, allowing users to save content to read at a later time or date.
Netflix making Twitter safe with Spoiler Foiler app
Netflix has produced Spoiler Foiler, an app that allows fans to block certain key words from appearing in their feed, preventing them from ruining the last season of Breaking Bad. For those wondering, the remainder of this week’s mash up is completely spoiler-free.
Heineken let football fans ‘share the sofa’
Walter White was dead all along. Not really! Anyway, Heineken has launched a ‘share the sofa’ Twitter campaign, in which European football fans can talk to ex-professionals throughout games using the hashtag #ShareTheSofa. The season-long campaign, which launched with one-time Dutch footballer Ruud Gullit, looks to play on the link between watching football and drinking beer.
Who’s ready for ACMilan/CelticFC? I am. #ShareTheSofa with me @Heineken and I’ll respond to your tweets … https://t.co/FbnevAqm88
— Ruud Gullit (@GullitR) September 18, 2013
Hooters celebrates 30th birthday with Instagram bash
Hooters is celebrating its 30th birthday by inviting 300,000 ex-waitresses to restaurants, and asking them to post Instagram photos with the hashtag #stepintoawesome. Given the, ahem, visual nature of the restaurant, the chosen network does seem to make sense.
Co-operative electrical asks fans to #FightThePrice
Co-operative electrical has created a Twitter campaign called #FightThePrice, which bases discounts depending on the number of users that tweet about certain products. Potential customers can view the available products on the ‘Fight The Price’ website, then tweet to attempt to increase the discounts, which will be revealed on the final Friday of the campaign.