By drawing people back to the living room, Internet TV has brought new marketing value and potential for China's programmatic media buying business, an industry report showed on Thursday.
While personal computers and mobile phones remain the most important information channels for many, the development of smart TVs has driven a growing number of users back to big-screen TVs, and some traditional TV watchers who have little access to the Internet have also shifted to Internet TVs, according to the China Programmatic TV Buying Trends report jointly released on Thursday by consulting firm SocialBeta and Yoyi Digital, a provider of multi-screen programmatic buying and marketing solutions for advertisers and media publishers.
The report also said people tend to spend more time watching Internet TV these days, taking back the time stolen by PCs and mobile phones gradually.
In 2015, more than 40.55 million smart TVs were sold in China, representing 100 percent growth in users, it noted.
The development has brought new opportunities for programmatic buying, which refers to the algorithmic purchase and sale of advertising space in real time. That process can match advertisers with selected content providers who can target the relevant audiences.
Programmatic advertising on mobile terminals may easily lead to impulse purchases of small goods, but marketing of high-price or high value-added products requires more convincing platforms.
Consumers trust TV advertising more than online ads, which is the advantage of smart TV, the report said, citing Li Xixiang, vice president of third-party marketing information provider Miaozhen Systems.