China to surpass Japan in global ad spending

China will overtake Japan to become the world's second-largest advertising market and account for 18 percent of additional ad spending between 2013 and 2016, according to a latest industry report.

Global ad spending will grow 5.3 percent to US$523 billion by the end of this year, according to the quarterly Advertising Expenditure Forecasts released yesterday by global media network ZenithOptimedia, a member of Publicis Groupe, the world's third-largest advertising and media conglomerate.

But the growth pace is seen to dip 0.1 percentage point from the previous forecast in June after tension in the Ukraine crisis escalated.

In 2013, China was already the third-largest ad market globally, behind the US and Japan.

The US is still the biggest contributor of new ad dollars to the global market and is estimated to account for 26 percent of the US$87 billion that will be added to global ad spending between 2013 and 2016.

The Internet is still the fastest growing medium with annual growth at an estimated 16 percent average for 2014-2016, after climbing 17.1 percent in 2013.

Mobile advertising — Internet ads that are sent to smartphones and tablets — may grow an average of 51 percent annually between 2013 and 2016, six times faster than desktop Internet.

"The spread of ever more sophisticated mobile devices will help this expansion continue and will sustain steady growth in global ad spend for the next few years," said Steve King, CEO of ZenithOptimedia Worldwide.

Mobile advertising will rise to contribute around 8.6 percent of all global ad spending by 2016, from just 2.9 percent of total ad expenditure in 2013, according to ZenithOptimedia.