A few quotes from a Guardian article about online advertising in China:

Hans Yu, managing director of Nielsen//NetRatings in China: "We're finding that the [online] market is actually far bigger than people think when you start to include people who only surf every now and then, perhaps on a friend's PC or at a cyber cafe."

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With growth expected to cause the Chinese market to double within three years, according to researchers at Gartner, the country is due to overtake America (with its current 137 million regular net users) in 2007 or possibly as early as next year.

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The [Chinese] advertising market is set to enjoy a growth rate of 18% this year, according to investment bank JP Morgan.

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China is no longer the "factory of Asia" but has become the world's fourth largest market for luxury goods, accounting for 12% of global demand, according to investment bank Goldman Sachs.

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According to Connecting with China, a report published last week, web advertising revenue growth is running at 40% per year (more than double traditional advertising) and search marketing is expanding at 60%. Two out of the top three Chinese portals, Sohu and Netease.com, are reporting increases of 70% and 60% respectively in advertising income for 2004.

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"It is a low starting point," says Chris Reitermann, head of Ogilvy One. "But you still can't get away from the fact that it is absolutely massive growth. As the traditional media are finding that their audiences are getting older, the net has the distinct advantage that it's very young and it's where the main audience that the brands want to be attracting can be found."

LINK:
Guardian article: Sino the times