China's websites are sticking to their traditional media guns when
it comes to advertising their Web offerings.
And advertising on billboards, TV and in newspapers has largely
dominated awareness drives, ramping mainland adspend for 1999 up to
US$4.2 billion.
According to Chinese glossy Zhongguo Jingying Bao - China Business - of
the US$14 million spent by mainland Websites in 1999, a meagre
US$2.5 million was devoted to advertising online.
This constituted a marginal 0.1 per cent of total adspend in the
mainland.
Meanwhile, in line with China's aggressive website explosion in '99, the
number of websites advertising in traditional media also rose from 33 at
the start of the year to 154 by year-end.
Cashing in on the Web revolution, advertising rates saw a 30 per cent
rise, from RMB3.57 million (US$431,159) to RMB45.07 million
(US$5.4 million).
Sina.com, Renren.com and China.com ranked as among the top 10 websites
by month on month adspend, said the report, with rankings prone to
volatile fluctuations.
Website advertising on the mainland was reportedly hampered by a lack of
widespread industry knowledge, leading to ads failing to deliver brand
values besides a URL or catchy slogan.
