Tencent remodeled its QQ chat app to resemble WeChat, its sister mobile chat app. Before, a light beside each contact’s name indicated who is online which clearly separated QQ as an IM service for fast-pasted conversations and WeChat as an SMS service for casual messaging. The QQ makeover deletes this function and changes the chat window to a new-style messaging app, questioning the difference between the two. Mockingly dubbed “second hand WeChat” by angry QQ users, the negative backlash has users demanding to downgrade. Read More

KakaoTalk Takes on Facebook Home With KakaoHome Android Launcher

Eager to take over the homescreens of Android users, popular Korean messaging app KakaoTalk, launches KakaoHome. Similar to Facebook Home, it is a customized mobile home screen for a more integrated social experience. By pulling out KakaoHome from the left side of the screen, it displays notifications from KakaoTalk, KakaoStory, social games and more. Boosting 90 million users, this is big news for South Korea. Read More

Is Yahoo! Acquired Tumblr More Attractive to Brands?

Yahoo! is looking to grab foothold among a younger demographic through acquiring Tumblr, a popular micro-blogging site that captures the “18-to-24 sweet spot.” The tech giant has plans to ramp up Tumblr’s ad revenue. But the acquisition may lose credibility for the site, as an aggressive ad-driven model could disrupt user experience. Read More

BBM No Longer Shackled to Blackberry Platform: Will Indonesians Rejoice?

Blackberry is bringing its infamous real-time messenger service (BBM) onto multiple operating platforms like Android and IOS, rivaling cross-platform chat apps (WeChat, Whatsapp. Viber, etc). Although Blackberry is confident with its latest move, their core customer base in Indonesia speaks otherwise – many are relieved to be free of their Blackberry shackles: “It’s BBM news, but the trending topic [in Indonesia] is iOS and Android.” Read More

What exactly does it mean to be a “social” brand? You’ve probably heard the term being bandied about by people wearing suits; in this webinar we really dive into what a “social” brand is, and how to be it.

Here’s a taste of what all brands should avoid on social media… at all costs.

Owners, Amy and Samy, of Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro, based in Scottsdale Arizona took their fury to social media recently. After seeing Amy’s bakery being featured in an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen nightmares, Amy and Samy of the bakery received worldwide criticisms on Reddit and Yelp, and they did not like the criticisms that amassed one bit.

The battle then moved onto the restaurants Facebook page, with the owners attacking Reddit, Yelp, and Facebook users for posting what they thought was misleading and negative comments about their restaurant. The owners fought back with numerous offensive comments and updates, calling users ‘stupid’, ‘weak’, ‘trash’ and ‘punks’. With the story gaining momentum, more and more Facebook users flocked to the restaurants Facebook page giving their two cents on the now infamous bakery. To top it off, the following night, the owners claimed that their Facebook page was hacked and they did not post the offensive comments. It was like adding fuel to a fire, and it spread very quickly. Click here if you want to read the full story.

So we gave you an example of what not to do. But what can you do to positively maximize your brand presence on social media?

This Friday (May 24) we will be hosting a webinar to discuss what makes a brand a part of the conversation that people have on social networks, it will cover:

•  The difference between a traditional and social marketing model
•  Case studies of brands who get social right
•  6 steps to becoming a social brand

Register for the webinar now and find out more!
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/801633689

Taobao announced the launch of its Hong Kong official site last Friday. The e-marketing platform is expanding rapidly in Chinese-speaking regions including Hong Kong and Taiwan. The official Hong Kong Taobao website offers functions tailored specifically for Hong Kong users. Outside of its native country, Taobao now has more than 1.2 million registered users worldwide. (Read More)

Indonesian Telco Enters the Battleground of Chat Apps

Indonesian Telco Indosat is building a chat app that bridges the gap between smartphone and feature phone. Unlike its competitors – WeChat (China), LINE (Japan) or Kakao (Korea) – Indosat’s chat app allows chats to go out from a smart device to a feature phone (in SMS format). The app is set to launch in the third quarter of 2013 at the earliest. (Read More)

Facebook Helps You With Their New Security Feature

Facebook has introduced a new security feature for when users lose access to both their email and Facebook accounts. Three separate codes are sent to three assigned contacts and users need to acquire all three codes to regain access into their Facebook account. The trusted contacts account recovery feature is another option for Facebook users if they encounter a virus on their computer. (Read More)

Seniors on Social

According to a recent report by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, the number of seniors (over 65) using social media now stands at 32%, with the highest concentration on Facebook. Seniors are taking it upon themselves to train and learn how to navigate these new platforms, and as a result, they are experiencing health benefits.  Using these new tools is said to help their cognitive abilities and confidence, especially when they are stimulated by online games and getting back in touch with old friends. They are also becoming more involved in finding support when it comes to health, as well as using online resources to do their own research. Gaming and social media is therefore a key area for pharmaceutical companies and agencies to explore when targeting this demographic, and it is a group that now cannot be discounted as not being sufficiently tech savvy.

Using Social to Reduce Health Costs

Can social media help reduce health care costs? If you’ve ever shopped around before a health or surgical procedure, you probably discovered that cost information is difficult to find. But a new crop of websites aiming to bring more transparency to medical expenses is now popping up. FAIR Health, a national non-profit, has built a database with billions of medical records that provides cost estimates for procedures by zip code. Healthcare Blue Book offers a similar service that’s available as a mobile app. Another outlet, ClearHealthCosts.com, has tapped the power of crowdsourcing by inviting users to anonymously report what they paid for medical procedures and where the care was provided. Whether you have a high deductible health care plan, a coinsurance arrangement, or lack coverage altogether, it’s finally getting easier to shop around for a competitive price.

 “Shazam” the flu away

This past flu season, Sanofi Pasteur ran its annual PR and advertising campaign to bring awareness to their Fluzone Intradermal influenza vaccine. However, this year they added another element to the cause: Shazam. The pharma brand applied the audio-detection technology to their adverts allowing consumers to find locations for where they could get the new shot. The result? More than 100,000 people used the app. As more consumers are becoming tech savvy its important to review the audience to gauge other means to bring awareness to your product / offering.

Five tech changes to healthcare in Asia

Frost & Sullivan provided 5 tech developments they foresee changing healthcare in Asia over the next decade. Along with cloud computing, electronic medical records – which some Asian countries have showed a willingness to share a range of information regarding their health – they see social media growth as the next big thing. With innovations potentially growing the pharma industry to $55bil in countries like India, there is a need for healthcare marketers to understand the importance of social media engagement, including the role of online portals, live chats, forums and panels etc. as a means to exchange information with e-patients.

Connecting like-patients

Many of us would not book a hotel before checking TripAdvisor – will we soon take a similar approach to prescription medicines?  A new health social network has been launched, to connect people (anonymously) with others who share the same symptoms.  HealthKeep allows users to upload symptoms, medications and their doctor’s details, and create a medical timeline tracking their condition.  Members can also ask other patients for their opinion of prescription medicines.  This reflects the growing trend for patients using social media to seek information on health topics, and specifically prescription medicines.  A study by Klick Health in 2012 found that around 25% of people using social media for health activities look for reviews of prescription medicines.  This has important implications for pharma companies – on the positive side social media provides a rich source of information on real life experience of medications – however the burden of pharmacovigilance is a downside yet to be resolved.

Like to hear more? Get in touch to discuss all things healthcare social media.

According to analysts at Techweb, Tencent’s mobile messaging platform Wechat will include paid publishing, meaning that media outlets, brands will have to pay to publish content on their platform, a QR code payment system and social gaming integration. Read More.

Alibaba Acquires 18% Stake in Sina Weibo for $586 Million

China’s Alibaba Group acquired an 18% stake in Sina Weibo in a deal that was valued at $586 million. The deal reflects Alibaba’s confidence in the microblogging platform Sina Weibo as a means to drive additional business to Alibaba’s C2C platform Taobao. Read More (Chinese).

LINE at its “Hockey Stick” moment; Now up to 150 million users.

Line Corporation CEO Akira Morikawa released the latest figures of messaging app LINE; a 150 million users are now on the platform, with 45 million of them in their domestic market. You can read the article here. We did an in-depth analysis of LINE in an article published last week. You can read it here.

*(Above map as of Nov. 2012)

At their very first “LINE Marketing Conference LINE + YOU,” the application provider NHN Japan Corporation shared some insight proving that LINE is not only a tool for connecting individual consumers, but also a powerful marketing and promotional tool that connects consumers to brands and services. Below are some of the strengths of LINE service:

Essential app for Japanese

Out of all the LINE users in Japan, more than 50% are “Daily Active Users” (DAU). When limited to users aged 24 or younger, DAU is almost 70%. This shows that LINE is a must-need communication infrastructure for many of the users in Japan.

Financial success of LINE

Although it’s free to use, LINE is also revenue generating for the provider. It is famously known for earning 350 million JPY in two months since its first launch of paid emoticons.The app’s profitability is not an indication of benefit to marketers; however, it is a reflection of its general rising popularity and a sign of potential stability.

While another successful mobile messaging application WeChat offers similar features (emoticons, gaming, free calling and etc) and profits on similar terms — LINE’s biggest strength lies in its ability to drive consumers to stores through sponsored coupons. At the “LINE Marketing Conference LINE + YOU,” they shared that 31.7% of LINE users use the sponsored coupons that the brand has issued on LINE, and 6.5% has visited the brand’s store more frequently.

Given such difference, it seems that LINE is positioning not only as a “lifestyle” tool among consumers, it is also building its base as a proper marketing tool for brands. On the other hand, WeChat is keeping its services free to consumers and brands. Looking at WeChat’s user base in China (above 200 million), and its expansion in Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand, the application appears to be focusing efforts on acquiring more users.

WeChat and LINE each poses different opportunities for marketers. The larger WeChat dominates Chinese language demographics, while LINE excels in Japan. Both are aggressively expanding into Southeast Asia and abroad. Both are worth our attention.

The Indian Premier League is a T20 cricket tournament which is played over 55 days and showcases the world’s best cricketers who play with domestic Indian talent.  There are 9 teams in the fray who play against each other twice. It is a sporting league which has grown to magnanimous proportions. The numbers tell the story. Around a billion cricket crazy fans watch it in stadiums, televisions and computer screens combined. In some ways, the rise of India has contributed to the rise of the game of cricket.

Social Media has played a big role in making the league digitally interactive and the fans have lapped it up. On an average, 20000 to 22000 tweets are sent out during any match. Each match lasts about 3.5 hours. The tweets are anywhere between 5000 to 6000 per hour! Currently, the number of tweets for #IPL are above 5 million and counting. All the matches are streamed live on YouTube across the world (except USA) and there are thousands who watch it live every day. Over the years, there has been a steady growth in the online viewership of the IPL. Hence, it doesn’t come as a surprise that contracts with YouTube has been renewed for millions of dollars. In fact, YouTube has enhanced the experience for IPL viewers with a strong Google+ integration.

All of the 9 teams are active on major social networks. Twitter witnesses the most activity as it is used for match updates and fan interactions. Apart from the different teams having a twitter account, @IPL is the hub for all things IPL on twitter. The IPL discovery page on twitter gives a lowdown on key profiles related to the IPL and it has a list of updates curated by twitter India.  The website of the IPL has a high interactive quotient with a special section for twitter and the latest updates from different teams are behind social logins.  The primary hash tags are #PepsiIPL and #IPL and different relevant hash tags for the teams that are playing. During match days, there is an option to join the conversation from the website directly.  Moreover, while the match is on, the twitter team battles are showed on TV during live telecast. It is a graph which depicts which team is garnering more loyalty on twitter as per the relevant team hash tag.

In India, the TV audience is far greater than the digital/social audience. But TV ratings for the IPL have dipped over the years and advertisers are investing more in social media than the traditional media. However, Cadbury has done something interesting as they have used the mainstream media to take the conversation to social media by leveraging IPL. They created a hash tag and advertised it heavily thereby tapping into the IPL audience without being a lead sponsor. Featuring of a hash tag in a major ad also caught the attention of the guys at twitter.  Hence, the IPL has provided a unique opportunity for advertisers to connect mainstream media and social media.

The IPL has certainly managed to tap into the youth’s conscience by leveraging social media. We know that the league lasts for a couple of months and after that the frenzy dies down. The IPL is yet to figure out a strategy that keeps the audience engaged after the league is over. Having said that, the Indian Premier League has been an astounding social media success primarily because Indians love Cricket and Social Media penetration is on the rise. Millions of cricket fans now have a medium to voice their opinions about a game that’s close to their heart.

References:

(1)   The IPL Website: http://www.iplt20.com/
(2) IPL YouTube account: http://www.youtube.com/indiatimes

Image adapted from: http://bit.ly/YJ4jRP

Pepsi IPL Logo adapted from: http://bit.ly/13atYSK

In a surprising reversal of stance, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) spokesman Zhang Feng said that MIIT would not be involved in the tangle between WeChat and the telecoms, saying that whether WeChat should reimburse the telecoms for lost text messaging income was up to the market. Zhang Feng was quoted as saying that the government hopes to support innovation in the mobile and web industries. So the fight is now between Tencent and the telecoms and no government intervention will be involved. Read More (Chinese).

China’s Social Media Users use WeChat, Weibo to Reach friends, family following Sichuan Earthquake

The aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake left phone lines and mobile networks severely congested. However, WeChat messages and Weibo posts, which consume less telecommunication bandwidth than traditional voice communication, allowed people to find each other and confirm the well being of friends and family. In a case of internet users uniting behind a common cause, the MIIT backed down from their threats to legislate the charging of extra fees to Tencent for taking away text messaging revenue from China telecoms after an uproar amongst China’s social media users. In this case, WeChat and Weibo proved themselves to be valuable public resources, in which case, it would be a difficult thing to convince the public to pay a fee for these services, as they were trying to do. Read More.

Baidu Acquires PPS.tv For Up to US$400M

Chinese search engine giant Baidu is acquiring Chinese online video sharing site PPS.tv for 300-400million USD, according to China Business News. PPS will be integrated into Baidu’s existing online video sharing service, iQiyi. This means that Baidu’s influence will extend to tier 3,4 and 5 cities in China.Read More (Chinese).

After launching internationally on Wednesday, Facebook home has reached the 500k download milestone as of yesterday. In comparison, however, Instagram achieved a million downloads within the first day of its launch on Android. It has to be said however, that Facebook Home is only available for a small percentage of all Android Smartphones. Read More

CNNIC: Chinese E-commerce Market Exceeded $190 Billion in 2012

The China Internet Network Information Center released figures for e-commerce in China; According to their measurements, 1.2 trillion RMB was spent on e-commerce in China over the course of 2012. Read More (Chinese)

WhatsApp “Bigger Than Twitter” With Over 200M Monthly Active Users, 8B Inbound And 12B Outbound Messages Daily

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum revealed at the AllThingsD Dive into Mobile conference in New York City that Whatsapp was larger than Twitter in terms of monthly active users. He did not reveal specific figures but that the number was slightly above 200 million. Read More

Mixed Reactions to Facebook Home by Users

Mashable reports that FB Home users have very mixed opinions about it. A large portion, 44% of users by their calculations at the time, rated the app with one star, commenting that the cover screen was only good for using Facebook, which, I suppose, is what the people designing it were looking for. However, this extremely negative sentiment was mirrored by extremely positive user reviews who regularly used Facebook. Read More

FB Home a flop in the US? Not a problem…

However it shouldn’t be too big of a problem for Facebook. AllThingsD commented that FB Home, which was designed to turn your phone into a “Facebook phone”, was designed for a different, more international market than just the US. According to them, FB Home would be a hit in nations where Internet access is sporadic; places where mobile data plans are the primary form of connecting to the Internet, for example in India or Indonesia. Its biggest selling point is the integrated messaging, image messaging, VOIP and video messaging that it brings to developing countries. Read More

Chat Heads coming to iOS

However, users of iOS need not despair that they’re being left out. Chat Heads, one of FB Home’s big features, will be brought to iPhones and iPads in a coming app update. What this allows users to do is for users to chat to friends while accessing another app. PC World explains succinctly what Facebook Home is in their article at their website. Read More