The Drum’s Daily Briefing: Samsung steals smartphone top spot and OpenAI opens in Asia
Our quickfire analysis of the brand, marketing and media stories that might just crop up in your meetings and conversations today.
South Korea’s Samsung is now the number 1 phone maker in the world / Samsung
ITV ponders political ad placements
A legal loophole could see political ads on UK TV for the first time ever during the upcoming general election.
Political parties have been banned from buying TV ads ever since commercial television began in Britain in 1955, but the broadcasting law only applies to traditional channels and not television delivered over the internet.
ITV confirmed to The Guardian that it is seriously considering whether to allow political parties to buy space on its ITVX platform.
A rule change announced in 2023 that increases the amount parties can spend on a general election from £19.5m to £35m could make it even more likely that TV will decide the next government.
Dr Martens accuses Temu of trademark infringement
British bootmaker Dr Martens has alleged that Temu is infringing its trademarks and that the online retailer paid Google to advertise products sold on its site when people searched for words including ‘Dr Martens’ and ‘Airwair’.
The search company stipulates that advertising doesn’t infringe trademark rights but doesn’t restrict advertisers from using trademarks as keywords.
The move is the latest example of western retailers fighting back against fast-growing Chinese rivals.
OpenAI expands into Asia
ChatGPT maker OpenAI is opening in Tokyo, its first office in Asia and its fourth globally (the San Francisco company also has offices in London and Dublin).
The news also comes with the announcement of a GPT-4 model that is specifically optimized for the Japanese language.
Tadao Nagasaki, who led Amazon’s cloud computing division, AWS, in the region, will take charge of the new hub.
Samsung steals smartphone top spot from Apple
South Korea’s Samsung is now the number 1 phone maker in the world, according to the IDC.
Apple has been relegated to second spot, with a 17.3% share; the iPhone maker’s smartphone shipments to China shrunk by 2.1% in Q4 2023, with some employers there having limited staff access to the Cupertino company’s devices.
Xiaomi takes the third spot, with 14.1%, as Chinese brands continue to gain market share.
UK mulls banning minors following Meta’s minimum age drop
Following WhatsApp’s reduction of the age requirement for users of its platform to 13, the UK government has drawn up plans for tougher age restrictions on social media.
Science, innovation and technology secretary Michelle Donelan has worked up the proposals, which are expected to be published before the end of the month. The consultation will also suggest banning smartphone sales to under-16s.
The proposals follow similar initiatives in the US aimed at giving more control to parents.