【英语中国】全球广告巨头抢占中国网络广告市场

The world's largest advertising companies want to conquer a presence in a burgeoning territory: online-ad buying in China.

Publicis Groupe SA and Interpublic Group of Cos., hoping to capitalize on projections for fast-paced growth in the country, are now planning to launch digital-ad buying units in China, company executives say.

Most large advertising companies, like Publicis, have been investing in China for several years through acquisitions and partnerships -- a move that provided a crucial buffer during the economic downturn in the U.S. and Europe. WPP PLC, in particular, has established a strong foothold in China by snapping up companies and aggressively pursuing partners for specialty areas.

The next frontier is the business of buying online ads -- a lucrative sector that has become a sophisticated business in the U.S. Advertising companies are looking to take their expertise and apply it to China's fast-growing digital market, where the Internet population now ranks as the largest in the world. The efforts are likely to face some hurdles though, ranging from technology issues to relations with the Chinese government.

The total Chinese ad market is expected to grow 14.4% this year to $21.1 billion. Of that, Internet ad revenues are expected to reach $2.5 billion, up 25% from 2009, according to Interpublic's media agency Magna Global. In comparison, U.S. ad revenue will increase 3.4% this year to $138.9 billion, with Internet advertising growing 13% to $25.7 billion.

WPP Chief Executive Martin Sorrell says one-third of the growth of the world's media market this year will be driven by business from China. From a scale and size perspective, China is the most important media market, he says.

'China represents the bull's eye and digital is incredibly important,' says Sir Sorrell.

WPP and Omnicom Group Inc. both say they are on the prowl to acquire more digital-ad firms in the region. On Monday, WPP said it had acquired a minority stake in a Chinese digital-advertising measurement company.

John Wren, chief executive of Omnicom, said on an earnings conference call Tuesday, referring to acquisitions: 'We expect to see more activity going forward, especially in markets like Asia.'

Publicis's digital advertising group, VivaKi, is deploying advertising models it has developed in the U.S. for online search, display and video advertising in China, says Curt Hecht, chief executive of the digital-ad unit VivaKi Nerve Center.

The company has formed a partnership with technology company Menlo Technologies to develop a system that will allow marketers to buy advertisements from online exchanges that operate auctions to match ad buyers and sellers to ad spaces on websites. Advertisers will be able to specify whether to buy a particular ad and how much to pay for it based on data about the consumer visiting a particular Web page.

Interpublic's media buying arm Mediabrands is in talks to acquire or establish a partnership with local online advertising companies to launch a similar initiative as Publicis, says Quentin George, chief digital officer at Mediabrands. Interpublic has trailed its rivals in investing in the China ad market.

The companies face a number of hurdles. For one, online advertising technologies are still nascent and building a new architecture will take time.

Online ad exchanges have yet to take hold in China, for instance. Most websites sell their ad space for a set time period. Other online advertising technologies are still developing, such as the existence of third-party companies to deliver online ads to websites. Ad executives say this limits marketers' ability to check whether their ads appeared online, analyze the results and capture data about their consumers.

'There is nothing that competes with China in terms of the opportunity for scale. On the demand side, it is very high. On the actual doing stuff side -- it is a lot more complicated than most people would like it to be,' Interpublic's Mr. George says.

Another hurdle could be relations with the Chinese government, as Google Inc.'s recent tensions with government officials over censorship requirements highlight. Google said earlier this year that it would phase out censored search deals with its Chinese partners. Though, Google recently said China would renew a license it needed to continue using its Chinese Web address, questions continue to linger over its future in the country.

Google dominates the search advertising marketing in the U.S. But doing business in China means brokering relationships with a new set of Chinese-based digital players, such as search engine Baidu.com Inc. and Internet portal Tencent Inc.

全世界最大的几个广告巨头都希望在一个快速增长的领域占据一席之地：中国的网络广告市场。

法国阳狮集团(Publicis Groupe SA)和美国IPG广告公司(Interpublic Group of Cos.)都想从中国的快速发展中分一杯羹，正计划在中国建立从事数字广告的业务部门，两家公司的高管如是说。

大多数像阳狮集团这样的广告巨头都已通过购并和合伙的方式投资中国市场达数年之久──这一举措成为降低欧美经济衰退对其不利影响的重要缓冲。WPP集团(WPP PLC)的动作尤其突出，通过一系列购并以及与特殊领域的企业积极寻求合作关系，在中国建立了一个强大的阵地。

下一个前沿战线就是网络广告市场，这是一个有利可图的板块，在美国已经成为一个成熟市场。广告公司希望将其在传统领域的专业特长应用到中国快速发展的数字市场中，因为中国的网民数量已经位居全球第一。然而，这些公司的努力也可能面临一些挑战，从技术问题到与中国政府的关系处理等，不一而足。

根据IPG旗下媒体服务机构麦格纳环球公司(MAGNA Global)的统计，2010年中国整体广告市场预计增长14.4%，市场价值为211亿美元；其中互联网广告收入预计将达到25亿美元，比2009年增长25%。与此形成对比的是，美国广告市场2010年增长3.4%，市场价值为1389亿美元，其中互联网广告收入同比增长13%，至257亿美元。

WPP集团的首席执行官苏铭天爵士(Sir Martin Sorrell)表示，2010年全球媒体市场三分之一的增长来自于中国市场。从级别和规模来看，中国是全球最重要的媒体市场，苏铭天爵士说。

“中国是全球媒体市场的中心，而数字广告又在其中占据至关重要的地位，” 苏铭天爵士说道。

WPP和宏盟集团(Omnicom Group Inc.)表示，他们都在中国寻找更多可供购并的数字广告公司。2010年7月19日，WPP宣布已收购一家中国数字广告评测公司的一小部分股权。

宏盟集团的首席执行官庄任(John Wren)在2010年7月20日的一个盈利发布电话会议中谈到购并计划时说：“我们预计未来会有更多的购并活动，尤其是在亚洲这样的市场。”

阳狮集团旗下的数字广告公司阳狮锐奇(VivaKi)正在将其为美国市场开发的数字广告商业模式用到中国的在线搜索、展示和视频广告上，阳狮锐奇的数字广告业务单元VivaKi Nerve Center的总裁赫克特(Curt Hecht)说道。

该公司已和IT企业Menlo Technologies达成合作关系，共同开发一个系统，让广告主在一个互联网交易平台上通过竞拍方式来购买广告，从而让广告的买卖双方就网站上的广告位置达成交易。广告主将能根据消费者访问特定网页的数据来决定是否购买某广告位置以及为此付出的价格。

IPG集团旗下的媒介管理机构盟博公司(Mediabrands)正在与一些中国的网络广告公司商谈收购或合作协议，以推出一个与阳狮集团类似的商业模式，盟博公司首席数字长乔治(Quentin George)说道。IPG在中国广告市场的投资已经落后于竞争对手。

这些广告巨头也面临不少挑战。首先，网络广告技术还处于初期阶段，建造一个全新的网络广告运作体系需要时间。

举例而言，互联网广告交易平台在中国还未兴起。大多数网站以一段固定期限来销售其广告空间。其他一些网络广告技术也在研发之中，比如由第三方公司来向网站提供网络广告的模式等。广告行业的高管表示，这种状况限制了广告主查询广告是否在网页中出现、分析广告效果以及获取消费者数据的能力。

“在规模方面，没有市场能与中国相提并论；在需求方面，中国市场也很旺盛；在实际运作方面，这里比大多数人所希望的要复杂得多，”IPG的乔治说道。

另一个障碍可能就是与中国政府的关系，谷歌公司(Google Inc.)近期就信息审查要求与中国政府之间的紧张关系就暴露出这个问题。谷歌年初表示，它将逐步解除与中国的合作伙伴达成的具有信息审查机制的搜索协议。但谷歌近期又说，中国政府将续发该公司在中国的运营执照，让其中国网站得以继续运营。谷歌在中国的命运还有很多变数。

在美国，谷歌独霸了搜索引擎的广告市场。然而，全球广告巨头要想在中国做生意，就得跟一批新的中国互联网企业打交道，如本土搜索引擎百度公司(Baidu.com Inc.)和互联网门户企业腾讯公司(Tencent Inc.)等。