Ads network covering China

For app developers considering to distribute your app in China who intend to monetize via in-app advertising, there is no doubt you will be wondering what is the best advertising network you should be using to increase your revenue. This is a question we don't have really the answer right now because ad distribution companies do not provide such information publically. However, we can tell you which ad network have considerable coverage in China, so that you can try them and let us know which one works out better for you.

As a foreign developer, you can still use and monetize using China's ad networks as most of them can sent you money via internation telegraphic transfer (T/T). Though the minimum payout is substantially increased due to expensive T/T fees or the fee will be deducted from your payment. This is assuming they do offer english support or else you will have to read/write/speak in chinese, so that you can deal with them. Unfortunately, unless you have direct access to a China based bank account/services, you can't avoid these fees/inconvenience. As a result, if you are starting your venture into China, it is probably better for you to get started using foreign (non-China) based ad network which uses western payment methods, such as Paypal at the expense of lower CPC/eCPM/fill rate.

According to this baidu article, there are a total of 21 ad network covering China, not as impressive as the 200+ Android app stores. Combined with this chinese article by iiMedia Research Group, we have identified three foreign ad network company you should consider using in your app.

Admob

Appflood

If you look at Appflood partners page, you can see they have partnerships with many well-know brand/companies in China, like Baidu, Kingsoft, China mobile and Qihoo 360. If you look at appflood's blog, you can also find many insight publications related to China, providing you information that obviously derived from these partnerships.

The Appflood platform is a relatively new company, as it has only recently celebrated its one year anniversary on 31th July, 2013.

"The AppFlood network has attracted more than 4,500 Android developers to date, accumulating 147 Million users – a 267% increase up from 40 Million in January 2013. AppFlood reached 46 Million Monthly Active Users (MAUs) in June of this year; delivering 1.3 Billion impressions. This growth has been driven entirely on Android..."

Even though they are relatively new, these numbers are impressive and demonstates this company's to do well in this competitive market.

Inmobi

According to mobithinking.com, China is not within its top 10 countries by impressions in 2011 and it is classified as blind mobile ad network. This means Inmobi is a relatively large company in this market, having 50.4 billion mobile ads served/ad impressions per month as of September 2011.

Despite so, it seems like Inmobi may be gaining marketshare in Taiwan as it has made plans to enter the Taiwan market along with signifcant number of impressions in Taiwan - "InMobi served one billion mobile ad impressions in the fourth quarter of 2011 in Taiwan, a fifteen-fold increase over the same period in 2010." - Inmobi press

Vpon

We believe one China based advertising network you need to know is Vpon, on its own press release, you can see "Vpon Inc. has been listed in 2014 Forbes China Top 100 Potential SME........Vpon Inc. is honored to have ranked 6th in the list. Vpon accumulated more than 200 million mobile users data in Greater China( China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), backing over 1,000 top brand customers and ad agency with accurate mobile marketing.....Vpon triple the revenue in the past three years." When we contact Vpon, we received quick e-mail reply from Vpon answering all our queries. We believe Vpon to be a good candidate if you would like to give China based ad network a try. Do take note that Vpon are separated into two branches, namely China (CN) and Taiwan (TW). The China branch only serve ads for China while Taiwan branch serve ads for all regions outside China, mainly in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. This means it is likely you would need to register two separate account with Vpon to serve ads covering China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, etc.

Smartmad

According to mobithinking.com, the largest mobile advertising network in China is Madhouse because it "reaches over 75% of China’s total mobile Internet traffic and covers all major mobile media types" in 2010. Smartmad said they have english support team for foreign developers but they do not seems to respond e-mail quickly if they did respond at all. If Vpon doesn't suit your needs, you should try Smartmad. 

Additional factors you probably want to consider

Mobile advertising revenue marketshare world-wide (2012) by eMarketer

According to emarketer.com, 2013 mobile advertising spending world-wide was US$17.96 billion though Gartner's mobile advertising spending estimate is only US$13.1 billion. Both project world-wide mobile advertising spending to have double digit percentage increase in 2014, with emarketer being more optimistic projecting as much as 75.1% increase in 2014 than Gartner's 18.48% increase in 2014. Comparing US vs China's mobile advertising spending in 2013, emarketer reports US mobile advertising spending at US$8.5 billion while iiMediaResearch reports China US mobile advertising spending at US$2.59 billion, consistent with Data Centre of China Internet (DCCI)'s 2011 projection. The same data also shows China's mobile advertising spending in 2014 to be higher than than the world-wide figure as well as US's.