UAE Exchange Group invests in digital gifting service Swych

Digital gifting platform Swych Inc has announced the successful completion of its Series A funding round, with a major strategic capital investment by UAE Exchange Group (www.uaeexchange.com), the money transfer, foreign exchange and payment solutions provider.

Currently available in the United States, Swych will collaborate with UAE Exchange to develop and promote digital gifting services in major markets, leveraging the global reach of UAE Exchange.

The service between the United States and India is targeted as the premiere launch.

UAE Exchange, which has a dominant presence in the UAE, with close to 150 branches spread across the seven emirates and 17 branches in the Dubai metro stations, did not disclose the value of its investment.

Swych offers a global digital gift card platform as a solution for global gifting services.

Promoth Manghat, CEO of UAE Exchange Group, said: “Swych’s global gifting technology and vision fits well with our strategy to foster purpose-based money transfers. As a group, we are always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with organizations that drive innovation, provide differential services and promote digital initiatives.”

Deepak Jain, CEO and Founder of Swych, added: “We are delighted and honoured to welcome UAE Exchange as a strategic partner and major investor. The capital infusion, vote of confidence and access to the huge market reach of a world leader like UAE Exchange will greatly accelerate Swych in its mission to become the leader in digital cross-border gifting services globally.”

Launched in 2016, Swych has rapidly built a large network of more than 120 US retailers, offering digital gift options. Swych is in the process of connecting 100+ retailers from India, the Philippines and several other countries to its network.

Facebook is pushing to turn Instagram Stories into the next big ad platform

• Brands can now advertise on Instagram Stories more easily. 
• They can use a new uploading tool to convert their organic Instagram Stories into ads and can run ads on Instagram Stories existing Facebook ad products.
• These new offerings are designed to help brands reach newer audiences with existing content and give them more flexibility with how they create and buy ads on Instagram Stories.

Facebook wants to turn Instagram Stories into the next big ad platform, and is trying to get brands of all sizes embrace it.

The company today unveiled a number of updates that make it easier for brands and businesses of all sizes to advertise on the platform, including a new uploading tool that lets marketers who already produce Instagram Stories to repurpose them as paid ads.

Businesses can now also use Facebook's Canvas (click here for more on Canvas) ad format on Instagram Stories as well as well, allowing them to more easily run the same ads across Facebook, Instagram and the Audience Network.

Instagram Stories has been growing at a rapid clip in the little over a year that it's been around for, with over 250 million daily active users and more than 50% of businesses on Instagram creating stories in the past month, according to the company. These tools are designed to help brands reach newer audiences with existing content.

The updates are also designed to give advertisers more flexibility with how they create and buy ads on Instagram Stories. For example, brands looking for a more polished experience can opt for Canvas ads, which should allow them to create compelling and fast-loading fullscreen ads.

Zenith and GroupM Ad buying agencies have both lowered their expectations for global ad spending in 2017 and 2018 according to the Wall Street Journal

Media buying agencies Zenith and GroupM have lowered their expectations for global ad spending in 2017 and 2018, due to factors ranging from political uncertainty in the U.K. to slowing growth in China.

WPP’s GroupM is expecting 3% global ad growth in 2017, down from the 4.4% it predicted last December.

Publicis Groupe’s Zenith predicts global ad spending will grow 4.0% in 2017, reaching $558 billion by the end of the year, according to the company’s new report. That’s down slightly from the 4.2% growth it forecast in June.

“Advertising expenditure grew ahead of the wider economy for the third consecutive year in 2016, but we expect it to fall behind over the next three years,” Zenith stated in its updated report.

In its latest earnings report, WPP blamed disappointing results and a grim outlook for 2017 on a steeper-than-expected slowdown in global ad spending by packaged-goods firms, among other factors. In its updated ad forecast, the holding company’s media agency group also indicated that a reduction in ad spending growth in China is partly to blame for the slowdown. Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser highlighted the drop in a note to investors.

GroupM is predicting that ad spending in China will grow by 3.8% in 2017, compared to its previous expectations of 7.8%, according to the company’s report. Zenith is predicting 6.9% growth in China, which is up from 6.6% it predicted in June and down from the 7.7% it expected in December, according to Mr. Wieser.

“Multinational CPG names appeared to spend a lot less in China in 2016, but this is only TV and print, and tells us nothing about the migration to digital these advertisers surely make,” GroupM said in its report. GroupM’s China operation also attributes a slowdown in growth in the region to “a consumer pause, as evidenced by Kantar data; further TV regulation; and digital running out of room as it approaches 60% market share.”

The Chinese economy “is slowing down after years of blistering growth, and the ad market is slowing alongside it,” said Zenith in its latest report.

China will still trail the U.S., “the leading contributor of new ad dollars to the global market over the next three years,” according to Zenith. “Its growth is slowing as its scale increases,” the company stated.

The media agencies also lowered expectations for ad spending in the U.K. while only slightly reducing U.S. growth forecasts. GroupM’s growth forecast for the U.K. dropped from an expected 7.2% growth to 4.1%. Zenith had already significantly reduced its predictions for spending in the region in June, but reduced it even more to 0.7% in its latest report, according to Mr. Wieser. The firm attributed the dip to political uncertainty, among other factors.

Each firm has its own methodology, but it’s not immediately clear why their forecasts in the U.K. and China are so different.

Zenith expects North American ad spend to grow 3.6% this year, and it’s predicting an average of 3.4% growth per year to 2019.

By Alexandra Bruell at alexandra.bruell@wsj.com. Published on the Wall Street Journal