Online spending hits $172m

Hong Kong - Marketers online advertising spend reached $172 million in the first quarter of 2008, led strongly by the computer & electronics sector.

Nielsen Online's quarterly AdRelevance report reveals more than 1,000 advertisers in Hong Kong promoted their brands online in the first three months in 2008, with more than 2,800 advertising campaigns and more than 5.5 billion ad impressions.

On a category basis, computers & electrical accounted for 17% of the total online advertising pie, closely followed by finance at 15%. In third place was the education & learning sector at 12%, with entertainment coming in with a 9% share.

Across all categories, Citicorp Group was the largest advertiser in the first quarter in 2008, spending HK$10.3 million on online advertising, with ad impressions of more than 330 million.

Coming in at second place was eBay, spending HK$8 million online with 254 million ad impressions.

Joseph Kam, commercial director at Nielsen Online said more and more marketers are using cyber space as a supplementary channel to traditional media.

"The Internet provides marketers with a boundless medium to reach an increasingly Internet-savvy and highly mobile audience, giving the online advertising market huge room for growth," he said.