Report: APAC ad market to grow by 5.9% in 2025

The APAC ad market will grow by 5.9% in 2025 to reach US$289 billion, driven by digital advertising revenues, according to MAGNA's latest report.

This follows a +7.5% growth in 2024, when the market hit US$289 billion. This is taking place in a slightly slowing, but stable, economic environment where real GDP grew by +5.3% in 2024 according to the IMF. 

Inflation in the APAC region has continued to decrease, with some economies still experiencing persistent price pressures while others face deflationary risks. Global disinflation and the potential for monetary easing have raised the chances of a soft landing. Although the property sector in China remains vulnerable and geopolitical uncertainty contributes to a lack of visibility, the overall advertising market remains stable, according to the report.

In 2025, the strongest growth in APAC is expected to come from Sri Lanka (+11.52%), Taiwan (+10.7%), and India (+9.6%). 

In 2024, the strongest growth in APAC came from Taiwan (+11.9%), Sri Lanka (+11.3%), and India (+10.5%). Weak advertising revenue growth, on the other hand, came from Singapore (+2.8%), Thailand (+2.8%) and Vietnam (+4.4%). APAC as a region is still dominated by China, which represents more than half of total ad revenues. When combined with Japan, Australia, India, and South Korea, those five large markets represent 87% of total APAC revenues.

Don't miss: MAGNA report: APAC ad market to grow by 8.5% in 2024

The overall APAC growth of 7.5% in 2024 consists of traditional media owners seeing +1% growth to reach US$68 billion (24% of budgets), and digital pure player publishers seeing the growth of +9.7% to reach US$221 billion (76% of budgets).

Television budgets are stabilising in 2024 and are expected to be up by +0.1%. This increase in growth is primarily driven by the tailwinds of sporting events – primarily the Paris Olympics. The UEFA Euro 2024 tournament and other sporting events typically have only a minor impact in APAC markets, according to the report. 

The report also revealed that digital advertising revenues are the driver of growth. Search remains the largest portion of digital advertising revenues and represented US$101 billion in 2024. This is 46% of total digital advertising budgets.

Search advertising in APAC is substantially driven by retail media platforms, especially in China where Alibaba, JD.com, Pinduoduo, and Meituan all drive search advertising revenues. Core search is also spiking around the world as traditional search platforms such as Google and Baidu also see strong performance relative to recent results.

On the other hand, social media advertising revenues remains strong in 2024. Social media ad revenues grew by +15% in 2024 to reach US$77 billion (35% of digital advertising budgets). Both search and social media revenues are driven by mobile devices. Smartphones are not just the dominant way that most consumers access the internet; in many APAC markets they are the only way consumers access the internet.

Many consumers skip the desktop hardware generation and conduct their digital lives solely on their smartphones. Furthermore, in China consumers don’t just do shopping and communication on smartphones, but also banking, insurance, and many work functions.

The digital strength driving APAC advertising revenues will translate to continued share gains for digital advertising revenues in APAC. Digital revenues will represent 82% of total budgets in 2029, up from 76% of total advertising revenues in 2024.

MAGNA is also analysing many APAC markets with a cross-platform view, where digital pure-player performance is split from the digital revenues of traditional broadcasters and publishers. In 2024, revenue from digital properties represented 11% of traditional publisher revenues in Japan, 18% in China, 31% in Australia, and 5% in India. Traditional media owners in APAC continue to evolve their businesses to harness digital formats. Going forward, more of their revenues will come from digital sources.

By 2029, the share of total revenues that are represented by linear advertising formats will have fallen to just 18%, representing about the same number of dollars (US$66 billion) as they do today (US$68 billion). Digital pure players, on the other hand, will represent 82% of total budgets and US$304 billion, significantly higher than their 2024 total (US$221 billion).  

Leigh Terry, CEO, IPG Mediabrands APAC, said: “The APAC advertising market is thriving, growing by 7.5% in 2024 to reach US$289 billion. This growth is fueled by digital advertising, with search and social media leading the charge. While traditional media is seeing modest growth, digital pure players are driving the majority of the market share. The future is bright for digital advertising in APAC, with its share of total budgets projected to reach 82% by 2029. Despite some economic uncertainties, the overall market remains stable and poised for continued growth."

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