Indian companies like social media
Indian companies are – finally – learning the value of social media.
In the past few years, businesses in the country have begun using social media as a central, planned part of their marketing strategy with proactive efforts and an allocated budget, a new report by Ernst and Young has found. Continue reading »
Hyundai pulls “offensive” ad – again
Given that South Korea has one of the world’s highest suicide rates, one would expect its leading companies to treat the subject with the utmost sensitivity. So it is surprising to see a recent promotional video for Hyundai Motor using it as the basis for a comic skit. Continue reading »
India, elections and Facebook kids
India is the land of wisen business leaders and octogenarian politicians. But it is also a country with more than 70m users of social media; a nation buzzing with youngsters active on the net.
Can India’s leaders keep up with the kids? Continue reading »
Poland: the gas deal and the billion-dollar tweet
Stock pickers might want to make sure that they are following the Twitter feed of Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister.
Those who do would have received a tweet late on Monday afternoon to the effect: “My intuition tells me that [treasury minister Mikolaj] Budzanowski will soon have important information re the price of gas in Poland.” Those in the know tied that comment to the ongoing talks that Poland was conducting with Russia’s Gazprom about lowering the price that Poland pays in its long-term contract. Continue reading »
Twitter: ‘biggest in China’, report
Common wisdom has it that when it comes to the web, China goes its own way. For big western sites there are China equivalents: for Google, there’s Baidu. For Facebook there’s Renren. For eBay, there’s Alibaba. And for Twitter, there’s Sina Weibo. Isn’t there?
In terms of numbers, yes. China has over 300m users on the Sina Weibo service – Twitter is banned in China. But hang on. According to a recent report, the most active users of Twitter worldwide are in… China. Not the US. How come? Continue reading »
Mexico: why López Obrador matters
What does the latest poll on Mexico’s presidential elections tell us about voting trends? The first thing is that Enrique Peña Nieto still has a big, and probably unassailable lead.
Monday’s poll by Buendia & Laredo, and published in the country’s El Universal newspaper, puts EPN, as the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate is known, on 37.8 per cent. That is almost 14 points clear of second placed Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the charismatic leftwing leader, who is now on 23.9 per cent.
The second thing is that the 45-year-old PRI former state governor is going to have to tread carefully from here on in. Continue reading »
In the current blame-game post-mortem that is the Facebook IPO, one thing is being overlooked: the drag effect on some emerging market tech stocks.
Investors who bought Facebook at $38 a share might be feeling a little sore as shares lost 11 per cent on Monday, settling at just over $34. But those holding shares in China’s Tencent (internet and communciations), South Africa’s Naspers (televion and internet) and Russia’s Mail.Ru (online communications) may be equally cheesed off. Continue reading »
Taiwan leader fined for Facebook post
Could Taiwan’s president Ma Ying-jeou be the first person in the world to be fined for his activities on Facebook?
Ma, who won re-election to a second term earlier this year, was on Wednesday ordered to pay T$500,000 (US$16,666) by the island’s Central Election Commission for posting a message to his Facebook campaign page on the day of the election. Continue reading »
Brazil: Facebook’s #2 fan
How many friends does Facebook have in Brazil?
46,339,720 according to the latest figures released by Socialbakers, a web analytics agency. That is a 22 per cent jump from 3 months ago and catapults Brazil ahead of India as Facebook’s second biggest market by users after the US.
The numbers matter. As the market prepares for Facebook’s eagerly awaited $13.6bn stock market debut later this month, one question investors will need to start focusing on is if and how the the online social networking site can maintain its breakneck growth and whether it can generate enough money from its vast user base to justify its eye-watering $95.8bn valuation. Continue reading »
Sina and Tencent: dark clouds and silver linings
Photo: Bloomberg
The Chinese government’s decision to shut down the comment function on Sina and Tencent’s weibo microblogs is a reminder of the powerful hold Beijing has over social media.
It may have put some people off using the microblogs during the 72 hours the ban was in force. Investors are asking if there are any longer terms effects on the businesses. Continue reading »
Youku / Tudou: better together?
About time: Chinese online video sites are merging. On Monday afternoon, rivals Youku and Tudou, both listed in New York, announced a $1bn all-stock merger. The combined company will go by the inventive moniker Youku Tudou Inc, which will continue to be listed in the US.
Since Tudou’s IPO last summer, shares have fallen 47 per cent. Youku, meanwhile, has dropped from $67 a share to just $25 in less than 12 months. Neither company has yet turned a profit, though Tudou did report a narrowing quarterly loss earlier this month. Youku, due to report on Wednesday, is also expecting to show a loss. Continue reading »
Dull no more: China’s NPC in the Weibo age
The annual session of China’s rubberstamp parliament has always been entertaining for the delegates: They get ten days in Beijing with a steady stream of good lunches and dinners on public expenses. For the rest of the nation, it was much less so, as state media presented the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in ever-same images.
No more. Following the boom of social media in China over the past year, the ruling Communist party is rapidly losing propaganda control over this most ritualised of all events in the country’s political calendar. Continue reading »
Russia: the election as seen via Twitter
With over 99 per cent of Russia reporting, Vladimir Putin appears to have walked away from the Russian election with about 64 per cent of the vote. The news has already angered opposition leaders who point to numerous electoral violations, captured on video throughout the day and reported by monitoring groups, such as the League of Voters.
Much of the election day drama played out minute-by-minute on Twitter. Here is a recap of the day’s most debated topics: Continue reading »
China: can online video make money?
Photo: Bloomberg
When Tudou, China’s second-biggest video website, reported fourth-quarter and full year results for 2011 overnight, it tried to show everything in the best light.
Gary Wang, founder and chief executive, said he was “very pleased” to present the numbers and emphasised the strength of Tudou’s growing integration with social media services. But that can’t hide the fact that Tudou, which went public in the US last year, continues to bleed red ink. Its net loss in the fourth quarter was Rmb148.9m ($23.6m). Continue reading »
Twitter’s Brazilian hangover
After a heavy night out in Rio or São Paulo, there’s nothing Brazilians like better than to get on Twitter before heading home.
It’s not to regale their followers with the night’s conquests, though, but to check on the location of the latest police blitzes against drunk driving. On seeing the police in a certain part of town, many Twitter users send out warning messages to other drivers so they can find alternative routes home. Continue reading »
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