Category: Featured News

Mobile wallet startup gets a financial boost from Alibaba

| October 2, 2015

Paytm has received investment funds from the commerce giant, solidifying its position in India.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has recently announced that it has made an investment into the company behind the Paytm mobile wallet in India, a startup called One97 Communications.

The Chinese online shopping giant revealed this news in a press release issued at the close of September.

The company has chosen to invest in the mobile wallet and online shopping site, sending Alibaba even further into the world of mobile payments. In India, this will also help the company to enhance its competitive position when compared to its rival, Snapdeal. One of its affiliates, Ant Financial Services Group, also made an investment into Paytm, back in February. It will also be joining into this most recent round of investments, said the press release on the matter. The funds will be used by Paytm in order to be able to boost its business and to place a focus on its technology, marketing and talent.

The specific terms of the agreement with regards to the mobile wallet investment have not yet been released.

Mobile Wallet Receives Financial BoostThat said, it is known that Alibaba and Ant Financial have made an investment of $680 million in order to boost their stake in the company from having been 25 percent to become a much larger 40 percent. Back in June, Reuters released a report that indicated that this type of investment could be worth more than $600 million, so the figures do align with what experts had been predicting.

According to the Alibaba Group CEO, Daniel Zhang, “India is an important emerging market with strong e-commerce potential.” He also added that “This investment will further expand Alibaba Group’s global footprint to India’s thriving mobile commerce market.”

This is an important market for Alibaba, which has been watching a slowing in the growth that it has been experiencing in its home country of China. As India is the fastest growing large economy on the planet, it appears to be the next logical step for a company the size of Alibaba. It is a move that is being made by a number of companies in the smartphone sphere, as mobile wallets, payment, and commerce rise in India.

Mobile marketing budgets to increase by 25 percent

| October 1, 2015

A recent India based study has shown that interest in advertising over this channel is growing fast.

Even though marketers in India typically reserve 10 percent or less of their total advertising budget for mobile marketing, a new report has indicated that this trend is currently changing and that by the end of the year, that figure will have risen by 25 percent.

Marketing firms in India tend to spend less of their overall ad budgets on mobile than Asian Pacific counterparts.

Almost 75 percent of marketers in India currently reserve 10 percent or less of their overall ad budgets for mobile marketing. In Asia Pacific countries, only 66 percent have such a low percentage reserved for this channel. This, according to a report that has been issued by Warc and the Mobile Marketing Association. That said, the report did take care to underscore the fact that much of the industry is expecting to increase their amount of spending on smartphone ads by 25 percent.

The portion of the mobile marketing budget will also continue to rise by another 51 to 99 percent by 2020.

Mobile Marketing BudgetThere will also be overall advertising budget growth heading to India, this year. Therefore, even though there will still be companies that will be spending only 10 percent of their total budget on mobile ads, the amount of money actually being spent will be increasing. In fact, the total budgets in India are predicted to rise by an average of 46 percent, which is slightly higher than Asia Pacific company counterparts, where the prediction is a 43 percent increase.

To explain the growth in the amount of spending that will be dedicated to mobile advertising, the report indicated that the cost associated with smartphone ads has increased by 49 percent. Therefore, to maintain the same strategy, it is costing companies more. “While marketers appreciate the importance of the mobile channel in India, full potential of mobile advertising is still to be realized,” said the report.

Approximately 47 percent of the respondents to this survey stated that they felt that mobile marketing is an effective channel and that it provides brands with benefit.