Mobile advertising on a roll

The rapid increase in the use of mobile Internet technologies and smartphones has helped China become the fastest growing mobile advertising market in the world, an industry report said on Tuesday.

Advertising expenditure on mobile terminals will see a growth of 834 percent in China, which is about three times the global growth rate, according to the 2013-2016 global trends for the advertising industry released by digital and media consultancy ZenithOptimedia.

Most of the major categories will see rapid growth in mobile advertising, with beauty, automotive and luxury being the main gainers, said Mykim Chikli, chief executive officer of ZenithOptimedia China.

Steve King, chief executive of ZenithOptimedia, said the explosive growth in mobile advertising is closely associated with the distinctive character of Chinese people born between 1982 and 1994, who are more used to mobile gadgets and have more trust in mobile terminals thus fulfilling all kinds of purposes such as payment.

In addition, these young people are bigger spenders. It is important for advertising firms to study the habits of this group and make investments accordingly.

The rise of mobile advertising can also be related to the widespread use of smartphones, said King. According to New York-based market research firm eMarketer, China has the third-largest population of smartphone users, next only to North America and Western Europe, which indicates that China is a mature market in terms of smartphone penetration.

Siew Ping Lim, CEO of Zenith China, said the Chinese advertising market is demonstrating two new characteristics this year.

The biggest advantage for Chinese advertisers is the ease with which they can adapt to new technologies, which is quite different from other markets. But Chinese advertisers also tend to be a little bit conservative in terms of the exchange of digital technologies with their overseas peers, which implies more room for future progress, she said.

Lim said advertisers are also attaching more importance to localization so as to cater to the local business model and this has been a major change in trends.

Globally, advertising expenditure is picking up as the end of the global economic downturn is finally in sight. After hitting a historic low in 2009, global advertising expenditure is expected to rise by 5.3 percent this year to $523 billion.

The same is slated to reach $584 billion by 2016.

Advertising on mobile terminals will be the main driver for global advertising growth, with annual growth rates between 2013 and 2016 reaching 244 percent, almost 10 times the growth rate of personal computer advertising.