Asia-Pacific Ad Market to Surpass All Others

According to a new report from eMarketer and Starcom Media Vest Group, the Asia-Pacific region will account for $173.2 billion in ad spending by 2014 - on its way to the top ad market in the world "soon after 2014." As for the prediction, the report points to higher consumer spending in China and India, and accelerated ad spends in China, India and Brazil during the current economic slowdown. Not surprisingly, these regions are also accounting for a major uptick in digital consumption - behavior that will help realize eMarketer's prediction of 17 percent of total media spending going online by 2014. Online spending in Asia-Pacific in 2014 will account for $22.2 billion, or 22.9 percent of the worldwide total.

The area with the fastest growth this year is the Middle East and Africa. Those regions will see $14 billion in spending, for a growth rate of 11.4 percent. It also happens that Africa is one of the fastest rising mobile markets. According to a recent report by Ovum Research & Consultancy, mobile phone users in Africa went up by 20 percent from 2008 to 2009 - an increase of 75 million new subscribers in a single year.