Online Ad Growth Stays Strong in China

• Posted: Thursday, December 18, 2008
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• Author: pradhana
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• Filed under: China

Marketers keep chasing the world’s largest online audience.

China has the most Internet users in the world, which would seem to make it a great mass audience on which marketers could lavish online ad spending. Yet according to data from The Nielsen Company cited in a December 2008 article in The Wall Street Journal, companies in China spend 5% or less of their ad budgets online. That is less than one-half of what their US counterparts set aside for Internet ads.

However, online ad spending is growing quickly in China. Nielsen said Q3 Internet ad spending grew 42% from the same period in 2007 to RMB3.72 billion ($541 million). That was more than twice as fast as ad spending growth in TV, newspapers or magazines.

The Wall Street Journal said that online advertising’s reputation as a cost-effective medium could give it a boost during the economic slowdown.

eMarketer’s most recent estimates of online ad spending in China put the 2008 total at RMB9.66 billion ($1.4 billion), 37% more than 2007.

GroupM estimated in October that online ad spending in China would reach $2.3 billion in 2008, up nearly two-thirds over 2007. The company said advertisers would spend $3.2 billion online in 2009.

Both estimates suggest solid double-digit growth for the medium through next year. [eMarketer]

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