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According to a global report, more than half of the world’s internet users reside in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, of which 79% are active on social media. Asian countries also dominate four of the top five positions in mobile-commerce penetration and growth, as well as time spent on the internet.
China is the world’s largest e-commerce market, contributing to more than 40% of global e-commerce spending, with its Singles’ Day doubling that of the U.S.’s Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday sales combined. Singapore, meanwhile, has a 147% mobile penetration rate, having more mobile devices than its total population, and 91% owning at least a smart phone. No matter the size of the country, year-on-year growth is clearly on the rise in Asia, resulting in more customers on the internet and more interacting and transacting online, especially through mobile channels.
As a result, companies are challenged to map out a larger online footprint across multiple digital properties on domains, email, websites, social media, marketplaces, and mobile apps. But monitoring everything for brand abuse is often neither practical nor affordable. The key, then, is to prioritize a company’s digital assets and ask stakeholders in marketing, legal and IT to work together and determine the right assets and which channels to monitor.
DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES, DIFFERENT PRIORITIES
The market where you operate is an important indicator of what you should monitor.
Financial services: Fraud and phishing
Asia is the home to two major financial hubs in Hong Kong and Singapore. For banks, it’s crucial to monitor the internet and social media for phishing scams, which target financial institutions more than any other sector. The list of scams that The Hong Kong Monetary Authority updates regularly, clearly illustrates how frequently fake sites pose as the top banks in the region as a way to trick customers into revealing their personal details.
Cybercriminals are also taking advantage of new channels using search engines results and mobileapps to install malware onto users’ devices to steal banking, credit card, and personal credentials. Because of the potential for fraud and the high profile of their brands, financial service companies need a comprehensive and connected approach to monitoring digital channels that are particularly prone to these threats.
Media and entertainment: Infringements and reputation damage
Everything in the entertainment industry is now online. News and videos are increasingly consumed on-demand online versus traditional media like print and film theatres. This gives rise to various forms of infringements that exploit a company’s brand and intellectual property in the digital space, and Asian countries and companies are fighting back.
In September and October 2017, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan each launched the Infringing Website List—an initiative by the UK’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit—that is aimed to reduce the advertising revenue or lifeline of piracy websites and protect the rights of local TV, film, and music creative industries, as well as their reputation. Hong Kong’s largest media broadcasters, and world’s largest producers for Chinese media content have also launched legal proceedings to block infringing websites from allowing copyright content to stream to TVs.
Additionally, as the industry faces the masses, its social media channels are typical targets by hacktivists to spread propaganda or negative sentiment that hurts the brand. Monitoring the internet and social channels like Twitter and Facebook has become particularly important.
Luxury goods and the pharmaceutical sector: Combating counterfeiting
These industries are particularly susceptible to counterfeit goods, which now constitute a significant global marketplace online, as well as in physical markets. Worldwide, the counterfeit trade grew to $1.1 trillion in 2013 and is projected to exceed $2.8 trillion by 2022.
A single tip-off in 2016 alone uncovered the production of $2.9 million worth of imitation premium cosmetic brands. In some cases, authentically marked bottles were unhygienically rinsed and refilled using hands with unknown substances. Many of these counterfeit products end up getting sold online.
For luxury brands, the issues are lost revenues and brand damage from cheaper, poor-quality imitations; for cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies, consuming fake products also present a public health risk. The monitoring strategy for companies in these industries must be oriented toward finding and combating counterfeiting online. This means working with your vendor to identify key online marketplaces and geographies, putting in place a reliable monitoring system, and deciding whether you want to also extend it to include enforcement once fake sites and goods are detected online.
DON’T JUST WATCH, TAKE ACTION
Every monitoring strategy is different, but it’s important to minimize any vulnerabilities and to focus on what’s important for your brands and your industry:
Six questions to help shape your monitoring approach
- Do you have a clear strategy for your digital brand?
- Are your marketing, IT, and legal teams working together on your digital assets?
- Do you know the full extent of your digital portfolio?
- Which assets are you monitoring, and are they the right ones to watch?
- What do you spend on monitoring?
- How easy is it to review and report on your monitoring results?
And when your monitoring activities reveal infringements, it’s time to take action, which may include:
- Domain name acquisition and recovery
- Phishing site takedown
- Username recovery and content takedown for social media and mobile apps
- Rights protection for new gTLDs
- Action against infringing Internet content
- Delisting in marketplaces
- Removal of paid search ads
When your digital brand monitoring activities are based on your priorities, they’re more cost-effective and more likely to spot the most damaging threats. Go a step further and speak with your service partner who should be able to recommend appropriate enforcement action on infringements.
Letitia Thian, APAC Marketing Manager, CSC
Letitia is the Singapore-based marketing manager for CSC® Digital Brand Services. As the APAC regional lead, she works closely with key stakeholder groups, including registries, media, and industry associations. Letitia has worked in the domains industry for the past five years and employs her expertise to raise awareness on issues in domain management, cyber security, and online brand protection among Asian businesses.