This is the second post in continued coverage of SES New York, and the series on Search in Asia, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
The last post looked at China and Japan. This post will look at the other 3 countries discussed in the session, namely Australia, Singapore, and Latin America
Latin America (Incl. the U.S.)
Alicia Morga, CEO, Consorte Media
Really, there are 3 primary Hispanic markets;
1. U.S. (43 million US Hispanics … 20 million online). 20% have come online in last 6 months, and will account for more than $1 trillion by 2010.
- – 52% English, 27% bilingual, 21% Spanish dominant. THe country of origin makes a big difference to keywords selected by due different terminologies.
2. Latin America – 407,424 total online population. Average users spends 29 hours online per month. This segment is growing rapidly.
3. Spain – beyond scope of this session.
Summary:
a. Hispanic market represents huge opportunity, but SEM alone won’t capture entire market.
Singapore
Anton Konikoff, Founder and CEO, Acronym Media
Singapore is an interesting opportunity. It has a population of 4.5 million. It is a thriving democracy, contrary to popular belief. The country ranks 17th in terms of per capita income amongst the world’s countries.
Four official languages; English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil. English is the language of business though.
91% of residents are internet users, 75% are connected via broadband. Over 50% of users in Singapore spend 20+ hours month online.
70% of Singapore’s population is ethnic Chinese, though these people are very different from the Chinese on the mainland. Most are 3rd generation Singaporian, so have adaopted different preferences.
What are Singaporians looking for online?
a. Local information 82%
b. more information about products and services (71%)
c. business related information (70%) … though word of mouth references rule.
Google has largest marketshare, followed by Yahoo. MSN and Baidu almost nonexistent there.
Australia
Erica Schmidt, Global Director of Search, Isobar
Australia’s population is roughly 20 million. Broadband penetration is relatively low compared to Asia and America … many still on Dial up. The percentage of the population online was 67% in 2007, and is expected to be 73% in 2012. Popular Aussie websites:
1. Google.com.au 7.8%
2. mail.live.com 3.0%
3. ninemsn.com.au 2.6%
4. Myspace 2.1%
5. ebay.com.au 2.0%
Search marketshare:
Google 88%+
Live 5%
Yahoo 2.5%
Marketers spending 95% of search revenues on Google.
Australia’s roughly 2 years behind the U.S. in search. SEO is often an afterthought. Interesting though, online spend as a percent of total marketing budget is expected to be 14% in 2008 … higher than most other countries.
Australians are not trusting of the internet and e-commerce online, so its much more difficult to gain sales online. They will research online, but are much more unlikely to purchase online.
