Magna Global Intelligence and UM China recently released a 47-page report on China, the world’s third largest ad market, which is forecast to overtake Japan to be the second biggest ad market globally next year.
China’s total ad spend is estimated to be worth $57 billion in 2015, after the largest ad market worldwide, the United States.
Below are 12 key facts on social media, mobile, search, and programmatic ad spend in the country extracted from the report:
- There are more than half a billion Internet users in China with more than 70 percent of first-time users surfing the Web on a mobile device.
- China’s digital market will be larger than its TV market this year, one of only 12 countries globally, and one of the only Asia Pacific countries apart from Australia.
- Social media ad spend in China will grow the fastest of any of the digital sub-segments, at 67.6 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2018.
- Mobile social will grow by nearly 100 percent CAGR and will make up more than 10 percent of total digital market in China by 2018.
- Mobile-based advertising comprises 10 percent of digital ad revenues and 3.5 percent of total ad revenues in China. It’s growing strongly, as mobile devices are becoming a common way to access the Web and the popular Weibos or microblogging social networks.
- Despite China’s programmatic market share being only 5 percent and increasing to 23 percent by 2017, it will still be the third largest programmatic market globally in 2017 due to the massive size of the Chinese digital market.
- Just 8 percent of total display market in China will be transacted programmatically in 2014, although this will grow to 23 percent and $3.5 billion by 2017.
- China has the second largest search advertising market in the world behind the U.S., at more than $11 billion in 2014.
- The top five advertisers for digital media in China for 2013 are P&G, China Mobile, Volkswagen, L’Oreal, and 360Buy.
- Instant messaging is the most popular activity on the Internet at 85 percent.
- Microblogging is “falling out of favor,” with Internet usage dipped from 58 percent in 2011 to 45 percent last year.
- Online shopping is one of the highest growth categories, which rose from 30 percent in 2011 to nearly 50 percent last year. This is followed by travel booking, an increase of 20 percent since 2011, at 30 percent in 2013.