Government digital spending spikes

The government and public sector has experienced the biggest increase in digital spending amongst all the other industry sectors, as of 2H 2011, showing a 74% spike in spending.In terms of actual revenue, this is SG$3.87 million in ad revenue for the period. The top three spenders by industry still remains the financial services sector (SG$ 11.5 million), travel and leisure (SG$11.44 million) and technology and telecoms (SG$10.27 million), all for the same period. These figures are according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau Southeast Asia's Singapore Online Advertising Revenue Report for the year ended December 2011.Overall, total online advertising revenues reached SG$ 75.6 million as of the end of last year.As a percentage of total ad spend, Singapore's digital spend still stands at only 8% of the pie, in comparison to more developed ad markets such as the UK (33%) and Japan (21%) However, this figure is still ahead of Hong Kong's 6% of total ad spend.By advertising format, display advertising remained fairly flat over H2 2011, its share of total interactive advertising spend declining slightly between H1 2011 to H2 2011. Search revenue saw a decrease from 40% to 35% between H1 2011 to H2 2011.Over the six half year periods ended 31 December 2011, the share of display advertising revenues declined from 59% in H1 2009 to 50% in H2 2011, with corresponding increase in search advertising revenues from 30% in H1 2009 to 35% in H2 2011.However, the overall share of search advertising remains lower compared to other more mature digital advertising markets, said a note in the report.The report was jointly commissioned by the Media Development Authority (MDA) and the IAB SE Asia, and compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.The report was compiled from data from companies such as media firms that sell online advertising in Singapore as well as sales houses that represent websites with a Singapore audience.Companies included were Aktiv Digital, BusinessWeek, Facebook, SingTel, Microsoft and more.