Chinese Mobile Ad Industry Thriving

September 8th, 2008

China’s mobile ad industry has taken a huge leap forward in the first half of 2008. The nation’s leading mobile advertising company, Madhouse, Inc., has reportedly served over 2.3 billion mobile ad impressions in the first half of this year, which is already about 5 times the total number of mobile ads served in the entire previous year.

Madhouse Inc. started a contextual ad service, towards the end of 2007. They have also started full screen interstitial mobile ad products and mobile video ad products this year, which are firsts for China, and have been very well received

Ad platforms in China allow mobile ads to be targeted to users depending on their location, mobile phone brand, model, and even retail price. The services can also optimise ad versions and frequency of ads shown, clicked or downloaded by each individual customer, similar to the way Google AdWords does.

China currently boasts over 500 million mobile phone subscribers, which represents a penetration rate of under 50 percent. Most Western European nations have penetration rates of over 100 percent.

If the Chinese population adopt mobile usage in a similar manner, the potential audience for mobile advertising in just that country will overshadow Europe or North America.

Tags: china, mobile, mobile advertising, ppc