Category: Mobile Marketing

Yahoo Japan sees major gains from mobile commerce and e-commerce

Yahoo Japan, one of the largest Internet companies in the country, had a very lucrative 2012. The company, which boasts of its own search, mobile, and e-commerce platforms, has done very well despite strong competition from Google and others looking to engage consumers in the mobile space. New analysis from Trefis, a financial and stock market analysis firm, suggests that there are two major factors that have contributed to Yahoo’s success over the last year: Mobile commerce and e-commerce.

Mobile advertising drives commerce higher

In 2012, Yahoo Japan generated approximately $3.5 billion in profit, with a company-wide gross margin of 90%. Trefis analysts expect that this growth will continue into 2013, especially as Yahoo looks to take advantage of the growing mobile commerce and advertising sector. Analysis shows that mobile advertising accounted for approximately 17% of Yahoo Japan’s total value in 2012. These advertisements helped spur mobile commerce, which also helped the company in terms of finances.

E-commerce initiatives prove successful

Yahoo’s e-commerce business is considered is most lucrative factor, accounting for 18% of the company’s value. E-commerce generated a significant portions of the company’s profits in 2012, largely backed by the performance of mobile commerce campaigns and mobile advertisements. Growth of the e-commerce sector is expected to slow in 2013, but Yahoo Japan will likely continue seeing promising results from this sector in the years to come, especially as more consumers become enthralled with mobile commerce.

2013 is likely to be a good year for Yahoo Japan

Yahoo Japan is expected to have a very strong 2013. The company has been putting more focus on engaging mobile consumers recently, largely because Japan is home to one of the largest mobile markets in the world. Smart phone penetration in the Japanese market is significant, eclipsing other countries by a healthy margin. This typically means that companies with a focus on mobile consumers tend to have a more powerful reach in the market than others.

Consumers are familiar with the small, squared QR codes on many products and in advertising, but often do not feel motivated to scan the code with their smartphone. A new company aims to not only change the look of the code, but also to make it more relevant so that consumers are more likely to scan.

Visualead and QR codes

Even if consumers do not know what QR code does, they have probably noticed it in various places like in advertising and on products. Those that have used it have been somewhat disappointed in the results and are reluctant to waste time doing it again. However, Visualead wants to change all of that by making QR more useful and even more profitable for businesses. Most consumers are not even aware of what the code can actually do.

New, improved QR code

Those who have seen QR code know the code has little to be desired in looks. The code is often in black and white and is comprised of small squares. The look is not very appealing. In most uses, these are scanned to give more details about a product or service but they rarely went any further than that. Some offered sales information and some are used for rewards programs, but consumers mostly ignore them. Visualead has devised a new, much more appealing appearance for QR code by blending it with the company logo while still keeping the components needed to make sure the code works.

The trick for Visualead has been to make sure the code and image are appealing without rendering the code useless. They have worked code into artwork and Logos for many well-known companies and even into pictures intended for use on Facebook. Visualead saw more than 300,000 scans in a very short and very limited test run.

Off and running

Investors have taken notice of the success of that limited trail run. Thanks to that success, Visualead has secured substantial backing and has begun the search for advertisers and companies that could benefit from what they have to offer. Not only could the new QR code be good for the typical uses, it could also, through the work of this company, see a consumer from introduction to a product to a final sale, all through a simple QR code scan.