S. Korea’s ad industry expands 7.9 pct last year

South Korea’s advertisement industry grew 17.9 percent last year to 12.17 trillion won ($11.28 billion) from a year ago, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation (KOBACO) Monday.

The nation’s ad industry stood at 9.11 trillion won in 2006 and topped 10 trillion won for the first time in 2010 and surpassed 12 trillion won in 2011.

Advertisement spending for all media amounted to 8.33 trillion won, representing 68.5 percent of the industry.

The combined ad spending for four major media forms - TV, radio, newspaper and magazine - accounted for 43.7 percent, or 3.64 trillion won, down 3.0 percentage points from a year ago.

In contrast, ad spending for cable TV, online, satellite, mobile, IPTV, DMB and other new media accounted for 34.6 percent, or 2.87 trillion won, up 6.2 percentage points from the previous year.