382m Smartphone Users in China

While smartphone penetration in China is yet to catch up with more developed markets, reaching just 28.5 per cent in 2012, that’s still more handsets than the whole of the US population.

eMarketer forecasts that will grow to 30.8 per cent this year, or 466.4m people, next year, but still won’t have passed the 50 per cent mark in 2017.

Mobile advertising remains relatively small, with much spend focused on SMS and MMS campaigns that are suitable for all mobile users. Excluding those campaigns, mobile ad spend was just $288.9m last year.

But this will grow sharply to $722.3m in 2013 and pass the $1bn mark next year. North America’s ad spend, by comparison, will hit $7.7bn this year.