Month: April 2014

Baidu Controls 72% of Chinese Search Market

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Baidu Search MarketBaidu’s recent development in search maintains solid growth. According to iResearch, PC + Mobile search captured 72% of the overall market. Mobile search underpins the growth of overall search with 160mn DAU (daily active users) in 1Q vs. 130mn two quarters ago. New functions have been integrated into the mobile search home page to provide users a more seamless experience. Customized vertical results on healthcare, eCommerce and education are now available on both PC and mobile. In terms of monetization, Baidu introduced a new bidding system that can target users in specific cities to generate higher ROI. Management expects mobile revenue to surpass PC later this year.

Baidu will continue its investment in five

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Just Dial Search Plus – Affiliate Marketing Model on Search Platform

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Justdial search Plus - Affiliate Marketing ModelJust Dial (JD) continues to dominate the search classifieds market given its significant scale in search requests and business listings, its customer first approach (making consumers come back again and again) and margin improvement led by a move towards mobile and scale benefits. JD is a market leader in local search with 364 mn visits during FY13 [Voice, SMS, mobile internet, PC internet]. JD earns its revenues by charging merchants a fee to list on its platform and places them preferentially in search results.

Just Dial Search Plus Service
In Dec-13, JD introduced the “Search Plus” service. These services are aimed at enabling Just Dial’s users to undertake several day-to-day tasks conveniently on a

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NetEase Vs TenCent Shift Competition to Online Education

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Online Learning is a Big Industry in Emerging Markets where Paid Apps Find Traction. China’s Internet Giant, Tencent recently released a special edition of its QQ product. The special version has added Tencent Class under QQ Group, allowing users to register and take online courses on Tencent Class. Tencent Class is the company’s online education platform. It offers free and paid online courses covering foreign languages, overseas test prep and professional skills development. Leading education service provider New Oriental also launched

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Reliance Pre-Paid Tariff Hikes Effective – Incumbents Gain

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Reliance Pre-Paid Tariff HikeBeleaguered Integrated Telecom company, Reliance Communications’ has raised its headline voice tariff by ~6.7% to 1.6 paise/ sec (vs 1.5 paise/ sec currently). It is also increasing tariffs on discounted plans by up to 20%. eg.1) Reduced 100 mins of STD to 80 mins of STD on Rs45 voucher; 2) talk time reduced to 400 mins from 500 mins on Rs 148 voucher; 3) talk time reduced to 2,500 mins of on-net from 3,000 mins on Rs 259 voucher.

Incumbent Operators Keep the Indirect Onslaught on Consumers
Though incumbent operators have not

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HANA Optimizations & Value Addition to CORE SAP Suite

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HANA In-Memory ERP OptimizationsMuch focus around HANA has been on the differentiated in-memory architecture and advantages the technology has over traditional relational databases, such as provided by Oracle. In fact, significant ripple has been felt by Oracle shares as HANA has become a proxy for innovation in database that ultimately could challenge Oracle’s dominance in database. In the context of the $30B database market, HANA, in theory, has the potential to be a large business. While it is early in the product’s development, we see little evidence that HANA can live up to this excitement.

HANA’s in-memory architecture is optimized for columnar operations and thus the first application was in the analytics space, specifically as the new foundation

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Google’s Internet Advertising Model Under Pressure ?

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Google Ads Reach the PeakGoogle the Search giant was the first company to meaningfully monetize the Advertising model across the spectrum of the Web from Large to the Smallest Publishing Networks. As other forms of web have emerged like Mobile Apps, Facebook, Twitter, etc the Ad Dollars are increasingly shifting to places where there is consumer engagement model.

In the latest quarterly results of Google, the number of aggregate paid clicks, or the total number of times a user clicks on an ad, increased 26% on a yoy basis in 1Q14. This compares with 31% yoy growth in 4Q13 and 20% yoy growth in the year ago period. On a sequential basis, paid clicks declined 1% which is below an average increase of 5% qoq over the prior three March quarters. CPCs declined 9% yoy during the period and were flat qoq (FX had a minimal impact on CPC growth). As management has stated previously, CPCs (and overall click trends for that matter) are affected

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Airtel Pre-Paid Night Unlimited Voice / Data Pack

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India’s Leading Wireless Operator, Airtel has decided to make the right use of Unused Spectrum and Network at Night.

Airtel launched Night Unlimited Calling pack at just Rs 7 / Month where in you can make Local Calls to any Airtel Mobile and talk for unlimited time between Midnight 00:00 to 06:00 Hours every day.

In order to develop taste for Indians towards Data Services, you can surf and browse as much as you want on Airtel 2G GPRS Data network with the

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Chinese Regulators’ Smart Move in Clearing Nokia – Microsoft Deal

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Nokia Microsoft DealThe Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services business, in a somewhat Smart move that will stand to benefit Chinese Consumers and Companies.

The Big Patent Concern
MOFCOM was concerned with certain Microsoft incentives changing post the deal, reflecting Microsoft’s licensing of some essential patents to vendors using Android software where Microsoft has claimed a small royalty fee. Microsoft is committed to licensing its patents on a FRAND basis and will not see injunctive relief against smartphone players in China on the basis of these patents for patents that are

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MSME Sector Embrace Online Advertising – Cheap, Better RoI

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Online Advertising in IndiaWe talked to businesses such as Restaurants, SMEs, job consultants, real estate builders and brokers using online advertising for feedback. Online classifieds are perceived to be cheap and most are likely to increase their online spend. It is not a case of “either-or” as many are using multiple sites.

The cost of advertising through Justdial, Google or Zomato is lower and better targeted than a newspaper or radio ad; for a real estate broker in Mumbai an annual subscription to 99acres or Magicbricks is paid back through commissions from a single rental deal. Online currently

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Why Reliance Jio Needs sub 1GHz Spectrum for 4G LTE ?

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Reliance Jio 800MHz SpectrumReliance Jio Infocomm the telecom arm of cash rich Reliance Industries Ltd has already acquired 1800MHz and 2300MHz spectrum to rollout Telecom services. Globally 1800/2100/2300MHz are high frequencies that telcos use for capacity, 700, 850 and 900MHz are globally the bands that telcos use for coverage, as these are low frequencies with long range, and hence help keep cell count to a minimum. In this background we explore why Reliance Jio needs a smaller Spectrum Band to deliver high QoS broadband experience and compete aggressively with incumbents.

700MHz / 900MHz Spectrum Feasibility
The government is likely to auction 30-35MHz of 700MHz in 2015-16. However, 700MHz base price may be set higher than 900MHz making it highly expensive. 700MHz LTE ecosystem is also two years behind 850. 900, being a European 3G band, is not a mainstream LTE band yet and perhaps for a long time. We feel Jio would only select LTE ready frequencies, which makes 700/850MHz a better bet.

Case for Reliance Jio to acquire 850MHz Spectrum for 4G LTE Services
850MHz already in commercial LTE deployment in a

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