December 20, 2015
Ad Spend In Asia To Grow at Over 5% As Digital, China Expand (Report)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief
© Copyright 2016 Variety Media

Advertising in Asia is forecast to continue on track at growth of between 5% and 6% next year, according to a new report by industry analysts Media Partners Asia.

China is expected to grow strongly and digital advertising is expected to overtake TV the following year in 2017.

The MPA forecasts follow a year where ad spending growth across the Asia Pacific region slowed to 5.3%. Media Partners Asia forecasts that to pick up to 5.8% in 2016, and lead a 5.5% average growth trend from 2015 to 2020.

In 2015, the fastest growing advertising markets were India (+10.8%), China (+8.5%) and Vietnam (+8.1%). Looking forward, over the next five years Media Partners Asia forecasts the strongest growth coming from India (+10.7%); China (+8.4%); Indonesia (+8.2%); the Philippines (+7.7%); and Vietnam (+7.3%).

China is already the largest advertising market in the region, having overtaken Japan in 2012, and is forecast to hit $85 billion by 2020.

Digital’s share of the advertising market in Asia Pacific is projected to overtake that of TV by 2017 and grow to 44% by 2020, up from 31% in 2015. The biggest drivers will be Australia, China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

In 2020, TV will still be the biggest ad medium in large markets such as India, Japan and Korea. And in Southeast Asia, TV will incrementally grow its share of advertising from 54% in 2015 to 55% by 2020, driven by the launch of digital terrestrial TV (DTT) in the Philippines and Thailand and a rebound in free-to-air TV demand across Indonesia.