Hosang Wu

No ratings yet.

As an individual user of online platforms you may not notice on your own, but companies are conducting experiments over and over again to get a better understanding of … You! This blogpost will introduce one of the methods how companies experiment and acquire more information about the effectivity of their own platform and how they should approach you.

Bucket testing, also known as A/B testing or split testing, is a method of comparing two or more versions of a webpage, app or ad with each other in order to determine which one performs better. To give an example, imagine two variants of an ad. The former version is a video ad and the latter version a simple banner. By exposing users on a random basis to one of the two variants, companies can use statistical models to determine which ad performs better (e.g. measure the number of clicks). Facebook offers its platform for such practices, allowing companies to acquire data in the best way to reach their audience.

From a marketing perspective, bucket testing is a strong tool to gather information about the behaviour of an individual user through hypothesis testing. A user may be for instance more inclined to click on a certain object depending on the size, the colours or even its position on the webpage. For companies, this would mean that effective use of bucket testing leads to more exposure, as the ads are specifically tailored so that the audience is more likely to interact with it.

While bucket testing is not new phenomenon, it does raise some issues. A platform may become so powerful after thousands or millions of tests, that it can accurately leverage on people’s personal vulnerabilities, and influence an individual to take an action that may or may not be in his or her best interest. The possibility exists that we end up consuming information and adapting certain ideas without even knowing someone is pulling the strings. Platforms have thus become an additional tool to influence people in an effective manner.

Sources
https://www.facebook.com/business/help/290009911394576

Social Engineering Defined

5/5 (1)

Mobile payment is developing in a rapid pace in mainland China. Mobile transactions between January and October 2017 amounted to a total of US$12.77 trillion and increased by roughly a third compared to previous year.¹ Mobile payment enabled Chinese consumers to make electronic transactions at any level, ranging from purchasing your breakfast at a small roadside food stall to paying your monthly rent. The rapid adoption of mobile payment is typical for China, while consumers in developed regions such as Western Europe or the US seem to be reluctant to incorporate mobile payment in their daily lives in a such a way as it occurs in China.

Mobile payment has trouble with positioning itself in developed regions due to the presence of a solid banking infrastructure. China has made a remarkable development since its opening up in 1978 and has ‘skipped’ the banking evolution during its process in becoming a developed country. In contrast to the Chinese situation, the majority of the people in the aforementioned regions already possess a debit card, credit card or both when they got in touch with mobile payment. Combined with a well-established payment infrastructure, there is little need for these people to switch to another payment platform. In fact, it may even become a burden to do so.

For example, in the Netherlands a debit card will assure you to pay closely to anywhere in the country, as cash machines and cash devices are nearly all over the place. In case you would leave your cash and debit card at home, as a consumer you run a great risk of unable to buy anything because mobile payment platforms are generally not supported.

Mobile payment has been successful in China, but only because it passed the banking evolution. In developed countries, banking infrastructure enjoyed the time to settle in society and people’s daily activities. The financial sector is however catching up with people’s smartphone behavior by introducing mobile debit card functionality to smartphones.^2,3 Although we see an alternative mobile payment platform emerge, one that is closely intertwined with the banking infrastructure, it will not replace the debit card in the short term.

Sources

¹http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201802/19/WS5a8a8e42a3106e7dcc13d08f.html

²https://www.rabobank.nl/particulieren/betalen/contactloos-betalen/rabo-wallet/

³https://www.ing.nl/particulier/mobiel-en-internetbankieren/mobiel-betalen/index.html

Bucket testing: marketing or social engineering?

30

Please rate this

Mobile payment, why China and not Europe?

6

Please rate this