German imports jump, exports also strong

Germany has had a large surplus for a long time now. This is due to the huge amount of exporting that Germany does. Some including President of the United States Donald Trump have taken issue with this and see Germany as taking advantage and trying to manipulate currency. Germany says that this is untrue and states the demand for German made products globally as the main reason for its surplus. Things may be balancing out however. Imports into Germany are on the rise and faster than expected. They rose 3 percent in the month of January. This may not be enough to satisfy everyone, but it is a step towards decreasing the surplus that Germany has had for so long now. Though this raises some concerns for the US and put Europe’s biggest economy on a new monitoring list with some other countries due to their large surpluses as well such as China and Japan.

Sources:

German imports jump, exports also strong. (2017, March 10). Retrieved April 23, 2017, from http://www.euronews.com/2017/03/10/german-imports-jump-exports-also-strong

Methods of Payment In Germany

Best Practices 

It is well known that Germany is popular for their imports and exports  in and out of the country. As I was doing some research, I was able to find out more about common methods of payment, open account, letter of credit, cash advance, documentary collections, and more. It seems that today a majority of German customers participate in something that is called an under seller buyer term. This includes a common 30/60/90 day accounts or even payments that are against documents. It comes as no surprise that the most popular payment method is by electronic funds transfer.  The reason that this is so popular is because it is the fastest and cheapest way you are able to transfer any type of fund. As technology has advanced, online transfers have become more secure as well as transparent. It seems as if the letter of credit is still utilized but only covers a portion of total imports. This is due to both cost and time requirements. L/C’s for a payment under 5,000 in U.S Dollars is almost unknown in their perspective. The United States can also encounter Bills of Exchange which is usually payable within a specific time period of about 2 to 3 months. On top of that, we had found out that Cash in advance is a rare thing in German import payment. Overall, Germany has very interesting Exporting and Importing Practices.

Sources:

Germany - Methods of Payment | export.gov. (2017). Export.gov. Retrieved 20 April 2017, from https://www.export.gov/article?id=Germany-methods-of-payment

German Media Market

Media Market

While doing some research, I was able to find an article that showed the 9 ways to get to know the German Media Market. As many of us know, Social Media has come a long way's since it had first began. Today it is the leading news platform as well as a worldwide conference that curates and shares some of the best ideas and insight. It has also take a huge impact on business, society, and even cultures.

Germany is one of the leading country's in the European Union with a population of over 80 million citizens. They are also ranked the highest GDP in the EU as well as being the fourth highest GDP in the world. Now for those of you that have not heard of "Hamburg", it is one of the world wide social media week locations which is also the second largest city in Germany. This is what they like to call Germany's media capital as you will find some of the largest media organisations at this location.

If you were one to have a hard time understanding the German media market, this is a great place for you to start finding out some of the information. As I found it very helpful that there hubs are live streamed and archived, as well as in English.

I have listed the steps below that this article had suggested to understand German Media Market.

1. Read Jeff Jarvis
2. Get a XING account
3. Join the Digital Media Women
4. Read the Local, Deutsche Welle, and Spiegel International
5. Learn German
6. Get stats from Bitkom
7. Read mobile - zeitgeist.de
8. Read Vocer.de
9. Read Meedia.de

As you will notice, the article will go more in depth about each of these steps, but this is just a start to understand more about the market.

The great thing about Social Media is that is has become such a great success, even internationally. Programs such as Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and even more have made such a impact on small to large business around the globe. As many different counties have access to this type of media a lot of them will use a different platforms on how they use it. In Germany itself more than 75 percent of people over the age of 14 use the internet in some way.

Overall Social Media has come a long ways, and has done great things. It has opened more doors to the future as well as given people opportunities to do more. Below are some of the links that I have found some of this information on and also give more in-depth detail about the Social Media Market.

Sources:

http://businessculture.org/western-europe/business-culture-in-germany/social-media-guide-for-germany/


https://www.socialfresh.com/international-social-media/


https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2014/12/9-ways-get-know-german-media-market/

Brexit: German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel tells UK "let's stay friends" despite EU divorce

Brexit has caused a lot of commotion since it was first announced. It was a major decision that has had many and far reaching effects. Some people or countries might have been offended by this decision. However, Germany is not one of these. Germany says lets still be friends and not let this come between us. The German government has said that they will fully support both the EU Brexit and the European Commission. Germany feels that the best thing for everyone is to work together and they are willing to help work towards this goal. There is no reason to disrupt ties with trading partners because that would not be good for anyone. So the overall message from Germany is “Let’s still be friends.”

Work Cited:

Donahue, R. B. (2017, March 29). Brexit: German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel tells UK 'let's stay friends' despite EU divorce. 
Retrieved April 02, 2017, from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/brexit-german-minister-sigmar-gabriel-tells-uk-lets-stay-friends-despite-eu-divorce-a7656481.html