S. Korea’s online advertising market grows 15%

South Korea’s digital advertising generated revenue of 3.7 trillion won ($3.2 billion) in 2016, marking a 15 percent on-year increase despite the sluggish ad industry, said the Korea Onlinead Association on Tuesday.

“Through consumer-oriented digital ads based on data analysis, the online advertisement market has recovered from its stagnant growth since 2012,” said a spokesperson for KOA.

The revenue for digital advertising was equivalent to a 32 percent share of Korea’s entire ad market.

Mobile advertisements made up the biggest proportion of digital marketing, with a 49 percent share. Profits from streaming services recorded a 66 percent increase on-year with 314.9 billion won, while revenues from search engines rose 14 percent to 2.2 trillion won and display ads increased 9 percent to 1.2 trillion won.

The development of mobile streaming, the ad tech market and the use of artificial intelligence in ads were listed by the association as factors that helped put the ad market back on track.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)