China's direct marketing sector is expected to reach 6 billion yuan (750 million U.S. dollars) to make up 3 percent to 5 percent of the advertising industry's total turnover this year, said Zhou Keren, chairman of China's Commercial Advertising Association.

New social trends and technologies are remaking the marketing landscape and the development of so-called precision marketing is gaining momentum, Zhou told the 2006 Precision Marketing Forum held in Beijing recently.

Precision marketing differs from mass marketing and is designed to deliver messages that are aimed at a viewer's specific wants and needs.

New technologies and analytical capabilities allow precision marketers to discover people's specific interests directing them to advertisements they think will be of interest to them.

Some precision marketers install programs on people's computers which monitor which websites they surf. With this information, pop-up advertisements are delivered to a person's computer which relate to the surfer's assumed interests.

Advertisers in China spent 3 billion yuan advertising on the internet in 2005, accounting for 2 percent of the total volume of the advertising industry. That's up from 1.9 billion yuan in 2004, a 58-percent year on year increase, said Gao Xinmin, vice chairman of the China internet Association.

Source: Xinhua