Korea expected to become 4th-largest mobile ad market

Global ad spending to top $6b this year


Korea is expected to become the world’s fourth-largest mobile advertising market this year.

In a report by eMarketer, a U.S. IT research firm, spending for mobile advertisements in Korea is estimated to reach over $450 million this year, up about 40 percent from $320 million in 2011.

Korea will follow the U.S., Japan and the U.K. in terms of ad spending.

The U.S., the world’s largest ad market, will maintain the top position with ad spending to reach some $2.3 billion this year, with Japan at $1.7 billion and the U.K. at $558 million.

Germany, China, France and Italy will likely each see their ad spending reach over $100 million this year, according to the eMarketer report.

Global ad expenditure is expected to hit over $6.4 billion in total this year, up 62 percent from about $4 billion last year, while surpassing $10 billion by 2014 and $20 billion by 2016.

The U.S., whose size will reach $10.3 billion, will account for more than half of the global ad market in 2016, eMarketer said.

Meanwhile, the report showed that Korea will continue to see a double-digit ad spending increase to over $540 million in 2013, $625 million in 2014 and $763 million by 2016.

Despite the global economic slowdown, demand for ads has been increasing due to international events such as the Olympics and upcoming presidential elections in the U.S. and Korea, two industry sources said.

The introduction of smart devices and Long Term Evolution networks will further pave the way for more interactive mobile ads featuring high-speed and resolution video graphics that were impossible with traditional media platforms, they said.

The global online ad market will reach over $100 billion for the first time, accounting for more than 20 percent of the global ad market.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)