China's Digital Spend For Video, Search, Mobile Forecast to Grow 44.5%

Increased investments of up to 50 percent in online video, search, and mobile will help digital media spend in China grow by more than 44.5 percent year-on-year, according to Carat’s global ad spend forecast for 2013 and 2014.

Overall media spend for China is forecast to grow by 6.9 percent this year and is expected to increase 7.9 percent in 2014.

China’s ad market growth, while more modest compared to previous years, trails only Russia among key advertising markets for 2013. China remains one of the leading markets for ad spend growth in the Asia Pacific region.

Japan is seeing a steady recovery of the ad market, with digital media spend forecast to rise by 7 percent.

In the rest of Asia Pacific, Indonesia (17.1 percent), Philippines (12.3 percent), and Vietnam (29.1 percent) are expected to see the highest ad spend growth rates.

However, the report did not break down on the digital media spends for each of these markets.

“We can expect more moderate rates of growth in China in line with slowing of the GDP growth, but the market continues to be the major player in driving growth in Asia Pacific,” Nick Waters, CEO for Aegis Media Asia Pacific, said in a prepared statement on the global ad spend forecast for the region. “South East Asian markets continue to show significant and rapid growth”.

Globally, digital media spend is expected to grab the second highest share of total ad spend at 18.3 percent this year, trailing behind TV at 43.8 percent.

Display spend growth is expected to climb up to 14 percent driven by online video and real-time bidding.

Paid search is forecast to grow by 16 percent. While Carat is optimistic that mobile will continue to grow exponentially, overall spend will “remain somewhat modest.”

Double-digit growth rates for digital media spend are expected to continue through to next year with the media agency predicting year-on-year growth at 14.3 percent for 2014.