Foreign ad companies under-represented overachievers

Shanghai (CNS) -- Advertising agencies funded by foreign capital serve as significant drivers in the advertising market of Shanghai and the country at large, despite accounting for only a tiny share on the Chinese market in terms of numbers.

The Shanghai Administration of Industry and Commerce on May 7 released a white paper on the status quo of the Shanghai advertising industry in 2011. By the end of that year, the number of registered advertising companies hit 58,560, including only 211 foreign-invested ones.

According to the paper, the average business income of all foreign advertising companies in 2011 hit 350 million yuan, 13.8 times the domestic ones. And the average operating profit for foreign advertising agencies in 2011 was 21 million yuan, 8.8 times that of domestic ones.