Welcome to this week’s global digital marketing weekly, the weekly summary of major industry and market developments from around the world. In this update: Baidu’s financial results reflect a mobile-first strategy; Yandex.Metrica is rapidly increasing its market share at the top of Russian web analytics; Aleyda Solis provides a perspective on mobile in international SEO; and Christmas drives more than a quarter of all ecommerce traffic in US.
Baidu financials, strategy indicate it is now a ‘mobile-first’ engine
Search Engine Journal reports that in Baidu’s third quarter earnings, China’s search engine attributed 36% of its total revenue from mobile (previously 30%). It also notes that, for the first time in the company’s history, mobile is now driving more traffic than desktop – a direct result of app deals struck with smartphone makers and investment into other areas of mobile software.
Baidu’s activity in this area also means mobile-specific algorithms that penalise poor user experience through the platform – the so called, “Baidu Ice Bucket”, which punishes login walls and overuse of adverts.
SEJ goes on to highlight differences between China’s mobile market and the US – Smartphone use among the online population in China is 70% versus the US’ 57%. Computer use is 65% versus 72%.
Yandex.Metrica leads web analytics in Russia
An evolving situation in web analytics: back in April, Russian analytics package LiveInternet was said to have a 7% edge on Yandex.Metrica, despite the dominance of the Yandex brand in Russian (and Russian language) search. Now, in a shift attributed to Yandex’s encryption of all search enquiries, Yandex.Metrica is suddenly and unsurprisingly the market leader.
An important detail for international businesses to consider here is that, not only is Google Analytics a distant third, its market share is allegedly “rapidly decreasing”.
Aleyda Solis Q&A on multi-device, multinational SEO
Over on Econsultancy this week, Graham Charlton interviews International SEO Consultant Aleyda Solis and provides insight on the difference between mobile and desktop SEO, as well as how this applies to international markets. Clearly, as with the information about Baidu and the Chinese market above, it’s important to have a good grasp of the share between desktop and mobile. Solis highlights the differences between Mexico and Colombia – Mobile having a 5% greater presence in the former. She also highlights some common mistakes seen on international sites.
27% of all US online sales in 2014 will be a result of Christmas period
Research by Adobe, as reported in the Drum, has revealed the impressive extent to which ecommerce companies are dependent on Christmas period shopping: 27% of online sales in the US this year will be related to Christmas. In Europe, the figure is a still significant 19.3%. The same survey notes that mobile phone use in the Christmas sales is also on the rise – 18.5% of online Christmas sales will be on a phone in the US. In the UK, the number will be as high as 24%.
Interestingly, while Adobe predicts that Cyber Monday (1 December) will once again be the biggest Christmas shopping day in the US, 25 November will be the UK equivalent.
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Image Credits
‘Study in door handles and mobile social networking’ by Lars Plougmann
Free wifi photo by Gabriel Flores Romero
Christmas Internet Surfing photo by Wolfgangfoto.