Aug 5

Written by: marketing
Thursday, August 05, 2010 1:20 PM 

Source: adoimagazine.com, May 2010

It’s certainly no secret that online gaming is one huge phenomenon across Asia Pacific.

If we look purely at the numbers, it’s clear that it’s one of, alongside social networking, the most engaging web activities in the region.

According to the last world comScore Metrix Service, which released figures on online gaming in Asia Pacific, 51% of the region’s internet population visited gaming sites in the particular month of the report. They spent an average of 87 minutes on the sites, averaging 11.5 visits per visitor during the month. It’s hard to argue with those impressive statistics.

As Will Hodgman of comScore succinctly put it, “This audience defines digital ‘active engagement’ – a combination of frequency and duration – that yields a ripe environment for advertisers.” 

While China led the region in online gaming penetration with 55% of their internet population visiting gaming sites during the month, representing over 90million users, all markets across Asia Pacific stacked up some big numbers. Singapore, for example, was at just under 50% and Malaysia at over 40%.

It’s not difficult to reach the conclusion that these huge numbers offer outstanding opportunities for advertisers to reach their target audience in Asia Pacific. Yet the interesting thing to note is that advertiser uptake of this medium has been very low up until now, especially compared to developed digital markets like the US and UK. Advertisers in these markets have been in the game and reaping the rewards for a while now. Surely it’s time for advertisers to start talking to online vendors here about the opportunities available on such a popular platform.