Here’s why Asia is where smart mobile marketers are advertising
If you thought western consumers were always on their smartphones, think again: Asia takes mobile-reliance to a whole new level. Mobile advertising in Asia is officially the fastest growing in the world… and understanding the power of it could be key to the future of mobile ads for Western companies.
A global trend report recently found that Asia leads the world in mobile ad requests, with a growth of 44% – almost twice the 23% growth of the Americas and EMEA.
It’s no surprise, given that the continent is quickly becoming a digital-first society: Asia is the world’s fastest-growing internet region, where mobile users on the average watch more weekly online video than they do the US, Canada, or Europe, and China’s multi-purpose “app for everything” WeChat boasts more than a billion monthly users, making it the world’s largest standalone app. That’s before we get to TikTok, the Beijing-based social network that has enraptured teens across the globe. Of course, with an integrated digital society comes huge opportunities for mobile advertisers.
While Korea, Indonesia, and Singapore all lead the surge in mobile engagement in Asian countries, India, in particular, is proving itself a powerful emerging market, with a huge 425% growth in mobile ad requests – far ahead of the USA’s 170% increase. At the same time, eCPM growth is being led by Singapore (154%), Japan (125%), and Australia (111%). Compare that to eCPM growth in the US of 79%, and it’s clear that while the industry is growing everywhere, it’s Asia where it is well and truly exploding.
This exponential growth is set to continue over the next five years. Mobile ad spend in Asia is expected to grow 88% over the next few years – that’s a higher rate than in North America and Europe, with the highest rates of growth within that forecast for China, India, and Indonesia. The digital economy in Asia as a whole, meanwhile, is projected to reach $200 billion by 2025. It’s big. And it’s about to get even bigger.
The unrivaled increase has a number of causes. Low-cost smartphones have made mobile connections more accessible than ever in the region, and the widespread use of smartphones has increased competition in mobile data networks – which has in turn allowed users to access internet data at lower costs. In these emerging markets, with users gaining their first internet access through their smartphone, populations are truly mobile-first, increasing the value of its mobile engagement further. As society becomes more connected, so too do its systems which rely on it, encouraging even more connectivity across the region, and greater engaged audiences all the time. It’s an unstoppable cycle, and we’re all already along for the ride.
Excitingly, the dramatic increase in Asian mobile use presents business opportunities for advertisers in the global marketplace, too – not just in Asia itself.
Companies like Seoul-based digital creative consultancy InterAd help Western companies to harness this growth for their own business, by acting as a marketing partner to increase their digital presence in Asia. Offering specialized digital marketing services, the company uses its local expertise to authentically localize businesses from all over the world for the Asian market.
The secret lies in combining local knowledge with SEO skills to attract organic traffic, as well as with SEM. This is essential in Asia, where search engines tend to prioritize paid-search over organic results. Get the mixture of digital marketing expertise and understanding of Asian consumer’s mobile habits just right, and you have the power to influence the fastest growing digital market on the planet.
In a world where the future feels more unknown than ever before, one thing is certain: companies looking for the next advertising boom should look to the east. It’s already happening – and it’s in the palm of your hand. Literally.
Written by Rebecca April May
Leave a Reply