China is set to be the second largest online advertising spender by 2014, with estimations reaching $11.78bn. The forecast comes from eMarketer, which also predicts that ad spending in China will reach nearly $53bn, outranking Japan to make it the second biggest spender on advertising globally. The not insignificant gap between China and the leading spender, the US, will narrow in coming years, it is claimed.
Agencies and pharma alike have been watching the market with interest, with expansion into the Asia-Pacific region aplenty. Many of the networks have a footprint in China and in January Draftfcb China opened a specialist healthcare communications office after winning Sanofi-Aventis’ 21 Super Vita brand range.
The forecast from eMarketer is a reflection of China’s 500m Internet users, a greater number than within the US.
With this new market of potential online advertising already growing at 20 per cent per annum, many advertisers are starting to focus more within this area. An eMarketer spokesperson commented that the “big audience with enormous and growing spending power” appears “very attractive to a lot of advertisers”.
Alongside this forecast, it is predicted that the entire Asia-Pacific region will follow China’s rapid growth in advertising spending and is set to pass Western Europe to become the second-largest region in the world for online advertising spending in 2013.
The Global Legal Group produced an International Comparative Legal Guide to Pharmaceutical Advertising in 2009 written by law firm Jones Day – a practical insight to cross-border pharmaceutical advertising work.