Published : Feb. 9, 2021 - 10:27
This photo, provided by Samsung Securities Co. on Sunday, shows an advertisement promoting the brokerage house on a Times Square billboard in New York on Feb. 4. (Samsung Securities Co.)
South Korea's overall advertising expenditure inched down in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the digital ad market expanded at a double-digit rate, a report showed Tuesday.
Advertising expenses in Asia's fourth-largest economy amounted to 11.99 trillion won ($10.7 billion) last year, down 0.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the report from Cheil Worldwide Inc.
The country's leading advertising agency attributed last year's sluggish market growth to the COVID-19 outbreak that made a big dent in corporate sales and advertising.
In the wake of the pandemic, the local digital ad market, including PC and mobile advertisements, swelled 13 percent on-year to 5.71 trillion won.
The share of the digital advertising market thus soared to an all-time high of 47.6 percent last year.
In contrast, expenses for broadcasting and print media ads suffered declines, with the market for billboards and other out-of-home ads registering a 27.2-percent on-year tumble.
Cheil Worldwide predicted the country's advertising expenditure to expand 4.6 percent on-year to 12.55 trillion won this year.
In particular, the digital ad market is projected to exceed the 6 trillion won mark, with its market share nearing 50 percent, it added. (Yonhap)