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Digital adspend to overtake TV in Hong Kong and Taiwan in 2017

Investment in digital and online advertising is set to exceed television in two Asian markets, Hong Kong and Taiwan, in 2017.

According to WPP media company GroupM’s annual Interaction Report, TV still remains king across Asian markets, with only digital only reigning supreme in China.

The report, which examined digital advertising growth forecasts in 46 markets, said TV still accounted for the majority of adspend 2016 at 42 per cent. However, GroupM predicts this share to drop to 41 per cent in 2017 following a 16 per cent contraction of the 16-24-year-old linear TV audience.

The following markets have already witnessed digital adspend overtake TV: Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom. Markets expected to join Taiwan and Hong as digitally dominant markets include France, Germany and Ireland.

Meanwhile, in 2017 GroupM predicts digital’s share of ad investment in the faster-growth world will catch up with what it described as the developed world to around 33 per cent, although no countries are specified.

In Hong Kong, the report notes that brands are becoming more “expert” in video advertising onsocial media. Brands are also becoming more aware creating better content to discourage ad-blocking among users, in particular those among the younger male  gaming community, the report said.  

At a glance: Hong Kong’s changing media landscape

Meanwhile, as competition for consumer attention and advertiser investment escalates, people worldwide are spending more time engrossed in some form of media. On a population-weighted average, the overall time spent with media grew by nine minutes to eight hours in 2016, but time spent with online media grew by 14 minutes due to the growing prevalence of smartphones.

A glimpse of Taiwan

Hong Kong was described as “recording improved management” of audience tracking due to the rising demand of video being available on multiple screens. Singapore media agencies were  also said to be “appreciative” of tracking consumers across different devices. 

The report said Facebook and Google continue to attract the majority of incremental adspend, but added that eyes will be on Chinese technology giants over the course of 2017. GroupM’s futures director Adam Smith said: “Google and Facebook attracted the vast majority of incremental digital ad investment growth in 2016.

“In 2017, the industry will be watching closely to see how Snapchat or Amazon may creep into Facebook’s and Google’s value chain, and if the stronghold that ‘BAT’ (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) has in China can expand to international markets.”

 

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