While an April 2012 eMarketer report showed that France trailed the rest of the EU-5 (Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) in its use of microblogging sites, growth accelerated during the presidential electoral campaign as politicians used social media attempt to engage the voting public. eMarketer predicts that the popularity of social networking, especially via mobile devices, will attract 21.9 million users in in 2012, increasing to 23.6 million in 2013.
The Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten has announced that it will be the lead investor in social network Pinterest’s latest $100m funding round. While it is one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world, many people in the United States have never heard of it, which may be one of the reasons behind the company’s decision to obtain a strong social networking presence in the world’s largest company
ModCloth, an online retailer of independently designed fashion and décor, has announced that it has closed a deal on $25 million of funding with a consortium led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). NVP’s Josh Goldman will join ModCloth’s board as a consequence of the deal. The e-tailer’s existing investors, led by Accel Partners, also participated in this round. The funding is required in order for ModCloth to continue building its unique site experience, based around the concepts of “empowering its community” and creating a “fun and unique social shopping experience”.
The French Internet economy trade association ACSEL (Association de l'économie numérique) organises regular workshops on different e-commerce markets. On the ninth of May, it was the Spanish and Italian online markets that were being subjected to scrutiny. Francois Deschamps, the French editor of the online portal Ecommercemag.fr, summarises the key points of the event.
According to an announcement by Iranian Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Sadeq Mofatteh, the Islamic Republic has plans to assume a central role in west Asian e-commerce. Iran will attempt to position itself as founder of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) organisation, to guide the development of e-commerce amongst ECO member states (comprising Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Turkey).
According to a new Yankee Group study, mobile ad spending across Brazil, China and India will grow six fold to total more than $6 billion by 2016, while the U.S. total will level off to about half that amount in the same four-year period. In Europe, the growth of mobile ad revenue will level off even more markedly, with little or no rise in the estimated $1 billion generated this year
Using the Internet it is possible to make contact with customers from all around the world. According to a survey by the German research institute ibi Research and E-Commerce Leitfaden, already 53 percent of German online retailers are actively selling abroad.
On the 5th of June, during the Global E-Commerce Summit in Barcelona, ASOS, Amazon, H&M, Nelly.com, Lego and Zalando will compete for the European E-Commerce Award for the Best Cross Border Webshop.