Tag: mobile marketing news

Tencent introduces new mobile marketing feature to WeChat

| July 18, 2014

New WeChat feature could put a new twist on mobile advertisements

Tencent, one of China’s largest Internet and e-commerce organizations, has held a commanding and lucrative place in the mobile space for some time, but the company is eager to find yet more success therein and beat back competition coming from companies like Alibaba. Tencent has launched a new service for its popular WeChat application that may take mobile marketing to a new level and make mobile ads more attractive and valuable to certain businesses.

Tencent aims to mimic the marketing success that social media platforms have seen through marketing

Social media marketing has long been a very powerful way to engage consumers due to the fact that so many people use social media platforms on a daily basis. For Facebook and Twitter, marketing is a primary revenue stream. For Tencent, marketing could be yet another way to monetize its WeChat application, which is the most widely used social application in Asia.

New service allows companies to place advertisements on the social pages of their competitors

mobile marketing - social media advertismentsTencent’s new WeChat service allows companies with verified WeChat accounts to pay fees to have their advertisements placed on the social pages of other companies. The revenue collected by these fees will be split between Tencent and the companies that will be hosting the advertisements. Advertisers will be able to target specific demographics through this new service, meaning that WeChat users will see ads based on their interests, age, gender, and location.

Tencent manages to successfully monetize app through mobile commerce

Tencent has already successfully monetized its WeChat app through allowing it to serve as a mobile commerce platform. The app can be used to pay for certain goods and service, as long as the company selling these goods and services supports mobile payments. By involving itself in the mobile marketing field, Tencent may be able to make itself more attractive to companies and not just consumers. This could help Tencent compete with Alibaba in the mobile space. Both companies have taken a strong position in the market, seeking dominance among a consumer base that is becoming increasingly mobile-centric.

E-mail is what is driving mobile commerce activity

| July 14, 2014

New report shows that mobile shopping activity continues to rise throughout the US

Custora, an electronic marketing service provider, has released a new report concerning the factors that are driving mobile commerce activity in the U.S. Over the past four years, mobile payments have seen a dramatic rise, finding their way into various industries and with more people showing interest in mobile transactions. Mobile commerce has seen the majority of its growth occur in the retail industry, where retail sales from smartphones and tablets have reached $42 billion as of t he end of 2013.

E-mail is driving more activity than social media

There are many factors driving the growth of the mobile space, but e-mail is one of the most influential of these factors. One common consensus among businesses is that the best way to engage mobile consumers is through social media. While this is true to some extent, e-mail is still the best way to drive commerce activity among these consumers. According to Custora, e-mail drive 26.7% of sales on smartphones and 23.1% on tablets. By comparison, social media only drove 0.6% of sales on smartphones and 0.2% on tablets. E-mail remains one of the most powerful marketing tools available to businesses today, despite the fact that e-mail services do not have the same flare as social media platforms.

Consumers are beginning to favor tablets over smartphones

Mobile Commerce - Email successful marketingCustora’s data shows that consumers are becoming more willing to shop from their smartphones and tablets as well. Between January and March of this year, 12% of online shoppers made purchases from more than one mobile device. Shoppers are beginning to favor tablets over smartphones as well, due to the better shopping experience that these devices offer.

Smartphones may be the primary mobile commerce tool among online shoppers for some time

Currently, the iPad is the most popular tablet device for online shoppers, accounting for 79.9% of tablet commerce. Amazon’s Kindle Fire is gaining momentum, however, as more consumers begin to use their tablets to shop online. Overall, smartphones are likely to remain the primary mobile commerce tool among consumers.