Consumers in Hong Kong  saw early signs of economic recovery in the latest quarter of 2009, driving optimistic advertisers to spend more online.  In the last quarter of 2009, online advertising peaked at $255 million HK, contributing to a full year total spending of $869 million HK. The financial sector led the way in 2009, accounting for 16 percent of the total market spends, according to the latest AdRelevance report from Nielsen's  Online Division in Hong Kong.

“All major indicators in the fourth quarter suggested that advertisers are more confident in turning to online advertising as economy picks up, as evidenced by a strong year-over-year growth in advertising expenditure, especially outperforming that of traditional media amidst a slow economy in the first three quarters of 2009," said  Joseph Kam, Commercial Director, Nielsen Online, Hong Kong & Taiwan. "As we see from a full year perspective, an increase of 17 percent in total online consumer spending indicates that online advertising is gaining its competitiveness as compared to other traditional forms of media."

More than 2,500 advertisers in Hong Kong advertised online from October to December in 2009, an increase of 137 percent from Q4 2008. The number of advertising campaigns has been doubled from 3,062 in Q4 2008 to 6,152 in Q4 2009, indicating a significant increase in importance of the online platform.

“The Internet is becoming a more competitive platform for advertisers to effectively reach their audience in a cost-effective way,” said Mr. Kam. “With more people turning online, spending an average of almost 20 hours online per week, more advertisers will leverage the Internet as a sufficient and efficient advertising platform to deliver messages across a large targeted group. Advertising follows eyeballs, and a well-targeted message will have higher relevance to people in the right locations and higher ROI.”