APAC to surpass North America as biggest ad market in 2014 : SMG, eMarketer

The Global Media Intelligence Report is a collection of data for six major regions, spanning 29 countries in total. It is led by Laura Desmond, global CEO of SMG, and Geoff Ramsey, CEO and co-founder of eMarketer.

The report looks at digital and total media advertising spend trends between 2009 to 2014. Excluding Japan and Australia, the Asia-Pacific region is currently trailing second after North America in media ad spend, but is expected to surpass the US with US$173.2 billion or 30.7 per cent of the world's ad spend share in 2014, the report noted.

Asia-Pacific currently holds 28 per cent of the pie.

Though figures on mobile advertising is not included in the research, online advertising spend has increased 14.7 per cent this year compared to a mere 5.7 per cent increase in 2009, totalling US$12.6 billion in 2010 regionally.

In 2009, online as a portion of total spend in Asia-Pacific only accounted for 8.6 per cent. This is expected to increase to 12.8 per cent in 2014, lagging behind the online share in North America and Western Europe.

By 2014, online ad spend in the region will hit US$22.2 billion, 22.9 per cent of the worldwide total.

Digital marketing dollars is shifting significantly to developing countries like China and India due to the growing middle class. The two countries records the fastest-growing internet population in the world with 581.6 million users in 2010.

Some highlights by countries:

China will see an annual growth of 20 per cent throughout 2012 in online ad spend. This year already saw a total of US$3.8 billion which will rise to US$6.4 billion by 2012.

India is still developing in terms of media penetration. Only 51 per cent of the population owned a TV in 2008, 31 per cent had a mobile and 20.2 per cent went online monthly. The country is estimated to have 63.6 million internet users in 2010. While penetration is low, India remains the fifth-largest internet user population worldwide.

Unlike other markets, Japan is seeing a decline in media spend to an estimated US$43 billion in 2010. Digital spend has also dropped slightly to US$8.2 billion this year, but is expected to make a comeback over the next two years.

South Korea follows Japan’s trend. Researchers estimate the total media spend in 2010 is between US$5.6 to US$7 billion. Online spend ranges from US$924 million to US$1.26 billion. This country has the highest household broadband penetration in the world, recording 90.2 per cent.

Australia records a media spend of US$10 billion this year. Double-digit growth in online spend is expected, and could reach US$2.1 billion by 2012. The country will also have 16 million internet users by 2014.

Desmond said, "Credible data that provides solid understanding and reliable trending for emerging and dynamic markets is critical. This approach of aggregation and analysis, we believe, has yielded a far more accurate and objective picture of the international marketplace than any single research source.”