Charles Chao
Okay. I will take your question here. For the fourth quarter, obviously, I mean, we got a pretty strong sequential growth for the first quarter compared to the third quarter and this is stronger than the average growth rate we''ve typically seen between the third and fourth quarter in the years prior to Olympic Games.
And so basically, I think this is a reflection of the continued recovery of the ad market in China. And so to answer your question, first question, I think the sequential growth will come from almost all the major sectors for our advertising business, probably with exception of the gaming, online gaming advertising, which were relatively weak compared to the market.
I mean so all other categories and the major ones that we''re going to see some strong sequential growth and so this is really across the board and not related to any particular industry. But if you want to talk about industries, probably telecom industry is still going to have a good upside in the fourth quarter and FMCG continues to do well and we also expect the automobile industry probably we''re going to see a year-to-year growth this quarter.
I mean, although, we always are very, very strong in the automobile industry for advertising but in the last two or three quarters actually, I mean, we have seen some very slight decline in our advertising for the automobile on a year-to-year comparison purpose. So for the fourth quarter, we are going to see some growth on a year-to-year basis.
And so this is really, as I said, I mean, pretty much across the sectors and so, I think it''s more a reflection of the general market condition and also our strong position in the overall business in this market.
And relating to the budgeting for next year and obviously, I mean we''re talking about this topic every year at this point. And at this point, I think that most people are still in the budgeting process for next year and obviously, we try to, I mean, get their budget allocations as soon as we can and we have been talking to different clients in different sectors. And looks like, I mean, in general, as I said, I mean, in my opening remarks that the market looks good and the people are generally more optimistic about the economy and the spendings for next year. So we are going to see probably an increase on overall advertising budget in the market next year.
And obviously with online become more and more important in this advertising business and you''ll see more allocation to the online advertising business -- online advertising budget next year from I think a lot of different sectors, I mean, industries.
And next year we probably will see more allocations from telecom industry and more allocation from FMCG. And in the areas where we historically have been very strong in the automobile, financial service, we''re also going to see some reasonable increase in these sectors.
So I think the overall sentiment is good but at this point it''s too early to comment exactly what kind of budget allocation our customer will have, I mean, for next year but the sentiment looks good.
And also, for the multinational companies, I think as we said before multinational companies have increasingly become less important in the overall market, I mean, for the advertising because their spendings as a percentage of total market has been decreasing, I mean, over the years and more and more local companies actually become more important customers for us, I mean, in the past two years and that trend actually will continue in the future.
And in terms of the pricing of our advertising for next year, I mean, we''re going to be cautious in terms of our advertising pricing for next year and there are two trends here. Is that obviously, I mean, given the increase in number of internet users in China we have an increase in traffic and then there will be increase in pricing.
And I think that this is a function not only, I mean, for the online advertising but also we need to look into the potential increase in the advertising pricing for other media companies and the traditional media, for example.
And recently we saw some of the satellite TV stations with the price, for the first, I think the batch of the companies actually releasing their pricing for next year. We saw something like 20% to 30% increase in the advertising pricing, I mean, for the listing pricing for some satellite TV stations.
And I think there is a trend, I mean, you are probably, Richard, you are probably very familiar with China''s media industry. There is a limitation further imposed by the TV and radio bureau in China that limit TV advertising time during the prime times, I mean, for certain satellite TV and TV stations. That will decrease the air time for some other TV stations in China and this may have to shift with some of the budgets from TV to online to new media companies next year, so this is a positive sign.
So we''re looking to this area and we do plan to raise our price next year but we will do that, I mean, in conjunction with our assessment of the market and as well as, the performance and the practice of other media companies.
Richard Ji - Morgan Stanley
Thank you, Charles. That''s helpful. My second question is related to your new advertising inventories especially given your company is an industry leader in video service or rich media service, as well as, celebrity related blogs?
Charles Chao
Right.
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