MEDIA-I: HK dotcom adspend plummets 56pc in Q1

Hong Kong's dotcom adspend for the first quarter of this year plunged almost 56 per cent to HKdollars 178.2 million. But recruitment websites and online publications bucked the general downward trend. According to figures released by ACNielsen, dotcom advertising, which stood at HKdollars 162.8 million for the whole of 1999, jumped an astounding 738.2 per cent last year to almost HKdollars 1.4 billion. But with the bursting of the dotcom bubble, many internet companies have slashed advertising and marketing expenditure this year. However, ACNielsen found Career Times magazine beefed up its adspend by more than 1,504 per cent in the first quarter of 2001 to HKdollars 3.9 million, compared with the same period in 2000. Oriental Daily also increased spending by more than 205 per cent to more than HKdollars 6 million, while recruitment website jobsdb.com stepped up advertising by more than 25 per cent in the first quarter of this year. Hugh Bloch, managing director of ACNielen eRatings.com said: "What's most striking about these figures is how much online recruitment websites, such as jobsdb.com, are spending on offline advertising. Those are some incredibly high figures." MindShare managing director, KK Tsang, added: "Online recruitment portals like jobmarket online, Career Times and Pandaplanet.com are spending more money on advertising this year compared to pure internet portals. However, the revenue income of recruitment portals is different from mainstream portals, as their income comes from clients who tend to buy their online products and services. This means online recruitment portals are much more willing to increase their adspend, not only to increase their membership base, but also to attract clients to buy their online services and products." MarketCatalysts' head of media, Deryk Tang, warned that he expected a further drop in dotcom advertising in the second and third quarters. "The most obvious reason is a lack of money. Lots of dotcom companies have been reducing expenses or should I say their burn rates over the past nine months now that the bubble has burst. Certainly pure internet companies, without the backing of traditional businesses, can't really afford to spend more. Also, since the number of dotcoms has fallen sharply and there are relatively few newcomers, the total market has shrunk," said Tang. He added ad agencies and media owners should prepare for "further pressure" in coming quarters. Bloch said he did not expect dotcom adspend to pick up in the coming quarters. "I think here we will continue to see a fall in the next two to three quarters. Also, the fact they are still advertising offline suggests a lack of confidence in the internet."

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