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British-born octopus Paul, who now lives in Oberhausen’s Sea Life Aquarium in Germany, has managed to predict the winners of every Germany match played in the World Cup. The predictions have made him one of the top ‘octopus’ related search terms.

Paul’s lucky talent was first realised during the 2008 Euro Championships when four out of his six predictions were correct. He has been predicting match results ever since, and his knack for predicting match outcomes made him into a star in Germany.

However, as we have seen many times before, fame always comes at a price. After Paul correctly predicted that Germany would beat Argentina in the quarter final, Argentinean fans threatened to kill and eat him, and since Spain’s victory over Germany on Wednesday, another outcome predicted by Paul, even the German’s have suggested Paul be turned into a tasty meal.

A Hitwise Intelligence report has found that the term ‘octopus world cup’ was one of the top ten ‘octopus’ related search terms for the 4 weeks leading up to July 3, 2010, and this is no doubt set to rise hugely since Wednesday’s match.

A ComScore report has revealed that the average internet user in Singapore spent 10.5 hours watching videos online in April this year. This involved consuming 130 online videos, each lasting an average of 4.9 minutes.

15-24 year olds were the most engaged, consuming an average of 192 videos per viewer and overall watching an average of 15 hours of online footage each. Surprisingly, people aged 55 and over also demonstrated heavy engagement with online videos, averaging at 12 videos each over the month.

Internet users aged 25-44 represented the highest number of unique online video watchers, however they spend less time viewing them and watch fewer videos on average compared to the higher and lower age brackets.

Online videos are one of the most popular forms of online entertainment  in Singapore. In April 320 million videos were watched there. Google sites ranked as the top video hosting service and represented 63.8% of the videos watched online. Youtube.com accounted for 99% of these. Facebook and Tudou ranked a far second and third.

(comScore, June 2010)

A recent Reform Digital report has unearthed the interesting search market in South Korea.

South Korea is extremely digitally advanced, and has often been ahead of the western world in terms of internet development. 95% of homes have broadband access, and the country was one of the first to receive TV via the internet.

The report found that Google accounts for less than 5% of the search engine market share in South Korea, and it’s local search engines Naver and Daum which hold 77% and 11% respectively.

PPC and paid advertising are hugely prevalent in South Korea, in fact the report states that ‘natural search plays little or no role in this market’, and SEO is more about social media saturation than content or link-building as it is on Google.

Social networks are big news in South Korea. CyWorld is the most popular, with over 90% of adults having accounts. As in China, Facebook and Twitter are barely heard of, and local social network sites and online communities are far more popular. Virtual goods have managed to generate a lot of revenue for social networking sites, and users can buy ‘add-ons’ for their social networking profiles. It is here that social networks are seen as more successful than those in the West in terms of financial gain. CyWorld is a very popular advertising platform, and brands engage users by including interactive advertisements.

http://www.netimperative.com/news/2010/june/south-korea-search-market-review-a-nation-of-web/

OBAN’s MD Grieg Holbrook will be speaking at the Online Marketing Show, which is one of the four shows hosted at Marketing Week Live! in the Grand Hall, Olympia, London on the 29th and 30th of June 2010.

Greig, an expert in the field of multilingual SEO, PPC and cultural multivariate, will be discussing international SEO case studies of some of our biggest clients such as Aviva, P&G and Discover America.

The details of the talk are as follows:

Day One: 29^th June 2010

16.00 – 16.30

International SEO PPC, Social Media & Cultural Multivariate: What’s hot in 2010

To find out more about the show, please visit:

http://www.onlinemarketingshow.co.uk/presentationarenasDMA.aspx

A study conducted by the independent research team The Futures Company has revealed that business travellers in China are most likely to research their travel plans on social networking sites.

The study, which looked into business and leisure travel trends, was conducted in partnership with Travelport, and covered 12 different countries, with a minimum of 1000 respondents in each.

India and Hong Kong followed China in researching business travel via social networks. In comparison,  results showed that people from the USA and UK were less inclined to use social networks to formulate business travel plans.

For leisure plans,China ranked third in researching on social networking sites.

China has the highest rate of internet users in the world, the number currently stands at around 400 million. In terms of percentages, social network usage is seemingly moderate at 35%, however, considering the number of internet users in China, the number actually stands at around 140 million.  That number is expected to more than triple in the next five years.

A survey last year found that about 20% of Chinese tourists look for travel reviews on social-networking sites. Thirty million Chinese people booked travel online last year—80% more than in 2008.

By Anna Pearce

We know how popular Facebook and Twitter are in the UK, but what about the rest of the world?

Here’s an atlas displaying some of the most popular social networking sites around the world:

Russian search giant Yandex last week announced that users can now see results from foreign sites only.

As with most local search engines, Yandex prefers locally hosted websites in the Russian language. Foreign websites are rarely shown in the first page rankings, and Yandex have stated that Russian web users prefer sites locally relevant and in Cyrillic script.

However, some users may be looking for something which is particular to another country, or which another country may be able to provide better information on, for example, if a Russian were searching for ‘hotels in London’, a UK website on holiday accommodation is more likely to be of use.

Now, when the global search filter is enabled, yandex.ru will display only the results from other countries. Latin script based enquiries account for 12-15% of all searches on Yandex, but Yandex also understand that just because people may be searching in English (for example) this may not mean they are after an English website. If someone were to search for the term ‘Apple iPhone’, as the gadget is known universally, they may still be looking for a site which sells it in Russia. Therefore, Yandex allows users to choose whether to view local search results or foreign results.

Whether or not Yandex are hoping to take on Google with their global search options is debatable, however the move certainly provides Russian web users with more choice when searching.

By Anna Pearce.

The European Union has developed a plan in order to get half of European households on broadband speeds by 2020, a report by the BBC has stated.

It is part of the European Union’s five year plan for the digital economy.
The plan also aims to have half of Europeans shopping online by 2015.
Neelie Kroes, the new digital affairs commissioner announced the agenda in order to boost Europe technological and digital advancement, helping it catch up with the USA.

As it stands, the US currently invests 40% more in technology than the EU.
Nearly a third of Europeans have never used the internet and only 1% has access to fibre-based high-speed networks.

In order to catch up, EU governments must double their annual spending on research and development to 11bn euros (£9.4bn) by 2020.

The developments in the EU’s digital progression will involve around 30 new laws being introduced, aiming to cut restrictions, increase the use of electronic payments, and make the internet more accessible for everyone, adhering to the European Parliament’s pledge to overhaul telecoms law and establish internet access as a fundamental right.

By Anna Pearce

South Africa’s First National Bank (FNB) and global internet payment system PayPal announced their new partnership at the end of March. This means that South African internet shoppers can now carry out transactions to and from their FNB accounts, and sell and purchase services and goods with 190 markets worldwide swiftly and safely. The move highlights ecommerce opportunities for foreign markets at a time when, thanks to the World Cup, South Africa is in the spotlight, and reflects the general progress being made in SA to improve and encourage international ecommerce.

Previously, South Africa has been considered an almost ‘no-go’ area for foreign businesses wanting to carry out ecommerce. A low internet population, poor connectivity, and issues with fraud and payment problems being a few of the hurdles they would have been expected to jump. However, the internet is moving forward in SA, and this is opening up windows of opportunity for businesses worldwide.

The 17,000 km SEACOM undersea cable system was launched in July 2009, and is the first in a series of undersea cable systems expected to vastly improve South Africa and neighbouring countries international internet connectivity by linking them to various regions across the world. The cable has increased bandwidth enormously, and the hope is that it will support South Africa’s economic and technological growth. Already, the effects the cable has had on internet usage in South Africa are evident. Between 2002 and 2007, internet population growth never rose above 8% year on year. In 2009, there was a reported 15% growth from 2008, from 4.6 million to 5.3 million, and by 2011 the internet population is expected to be at 11 million. Plans for further cables are underway, and if all are carried out, the international internet capacity of SA will have increased 150-fold since 2008.

The undersea cable has also had a positive effect on internet pricing in South Africa. Before 2009 Telkom held the ISP monopoly in the country. Now, although Telkom still holds the market share, there are a range of competitors, including Neotel, Vodacom and MWeb. With such competition, operators are now working on providing users with the best rates. MWeb and Vox Telecom have just announced plans to provide customers with an uncapped ADSL broadband tariff, and Vodacom offer a 50% off deal for their business customers. In a country where, for many, internet has been inaccessible due to expensive rates, these price drops should open up access for a much wider demographic of the country.

The outlook is promising for ecommerce in South Africa. Statistics show that there was a 7% increase in internet retailing in 2009, and with higher rates of employment and disposable incomes, people will be looking for quicker and convenient ways to shop. Previously, trust in online shopping has been low, however, with some of South Africa’s leading retailers such as Woolworths and Pick ‘n’ Pay opening online stores, trust is expected to increase. The Mastercard Worldwide Online Shopping Survey 2010 showed only 5% of respondents use only offline channels to browse and purchase goods. With these statistics in mind, South Africa could hold a lot of potential for UK businesses. Research into South African ecommerce and internet usage should be carried out in order to develop an international SEO and web marketing strategy. By doing this, businesses can not only expand into a market which holds great potential, but also assist in the economic and technological advancement of 2010’s most celebrated country.

Expedia recently investigated online holiday booking behaviour amongst Swedes and reported some interesting behavioural trends in when, how and what people look for when they book a holiday.  (more…)