In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sum up key industry updates on ad tech from around the Asia-Pacific region – and in this edition: Chinese investors acquire Media.net for £687m; AU online ad spend hits £3.9bn; TubeMogul aims to educate China ad industry; AU small firms need help with marketing; Smartology unveils new Singapore hire; and Targetbase AU rebrands to The Walk Agency.

Chinese investors acquire Media.net for £687m

A group of Chinese investors are dishing out USD$900m (£687.53m) to buy ad tech vendor, Media.net, in an all-cash transaction touted to be the third-largest deal in the industry.

Led by Beijing Miteno Communication Technology, the Chinese consortium already had paid up USD$426m (£325.43m) and would fork out the rest of the payment according to an agreed schedule.

Miteno's Zhang Zhiyong (left) and Media.net's Divyank Turakhia

The deal was heralded as an important step in driving Media.net's global expansion as well as providing access to China's capital and talent markets. It would be folded into Beijing-based Miteno following the acquisition.

Miteno Chairman Zhang Zhiyong said: "Online advertising continues to be a double-digit growth industry, despite already being one of the largest revenue-generating businesses online. However, the ad-tech industry is notoriously compartmentalised and fractured across technologies, companies, and geographies.

"It is impossible for publishers and advertisers to work with single-feature or single-product vendors without losing material efficiencies and increasing costs", Zhang added. "In evaluating this deal, we looked at Media.net's smart investments over many years to build a large and comprehensive technology stack to escape these trends."

Media.net would continue to operate under founder and CEO, Divyank Turakhia, as well as its existing management team. The company had received seven bids worldwide before deciding on the Chinese consortium.

AU online ad spend hits £3.9bn

Australia's online advertising market has grown 29.7% to churn AUD$6.8bn (£3.95bn) for its fiscal 2016, ended 30 June, clocking the fastest year-on-year growth in five years.

Double-digital growth rates were seen across all online ad segments, according to the latest stats from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia and PricewaterhouseCoopers' ad expenditure report.

General Display ad spend saw the largest increase at 43.3%, accounting for AUD$2.5bn (£1.45bn), while Classifieds registered a 21% uptick to hit AUD$1.2bn (£697.66m).

Mobile ad spend climbed 72% to AUD$1.96bn (£1.14bn), with Search and Display accounting for 43% and 57%, respectively, of total expenditure.

Video ad buys grew 55% to AUD$600m (£348.83m), accounting for 24.3% of overall General Display ad spend.

IAB Australia CEO Vijay Solanki said: "Another year of double-digit growth, driven by the continued rise of the mobile and video category, means that online advertising heads closer to half of all advertising spend."

He noted that Real Estate as well as Automotive, Retail, and FMCG segments led spending activities, building up capabilities across all digital platforms –particularly in mobile and video. "They know how to use content, technology, and data to help achieve their marketing goals efficiently", Solanki added.

TubeMogul aim to educate China ad industry

The video ad tech vendor has hosted its first event in China to raise awareness about programmatic market trends and best practices in the local industry.

Held this week, the half-day educational summit featured sessions on global as well as regional programmatic developments, product innovation, and presentations on best practices that included a panel discussion and case study on Airbnb.

TubeMogul, earlier this year, set up a local office in China, following the appointments of their leadership team, which included managing director Jeffery Zheng. The Shanghai outfit currently have five employees and support more than 15 brand and agency customers, including Samsung and Lilith.

They also house a tech team comprising more than 50 staff in Chengdu, which is TubeMogul's largest development site outside its headquarters in Emeryville, California.

The company added that they were planning more educational events as well as certification programmes for their Chinese advertising partners in the next 12 to 18 months.

Zheng said: "TubeMogul is now fully licensed to operate in China and already services some of the biggest global brands and regional leaders. We look forward to unveiling even more innovations and activity in the months to come."

AU small firms need help with marketing

Some 43% of small business owners in Australia say they want to know how to tap marketing to generate new business leads.

According to a survey by marketing training company Basic Bananas, 38% of these companies were most concerned about marketing their business correctly and attracting customers.

The study, which polled 781 respondents in the country, found that 12% wanted to understand how to use social media for marketing purposes, while 9% said likewise for online and digital, and 2% for SEO.

"As small business owners, marketing is often seen as an expense they're not ready for or don't think they can afford", Basic Bananas' co-founder Christo Hall wrote in a post for Inside Small Business. "They feel a sense of overwhelming nervousness when trying to understand marketing and the benefits of doing so to attract new clients."

Hall added that few of these companies were using new technologies to help drive their business, even though these methods offered more cost efficiencies and were easier to deploy, compared to decade-old strategies.

"A lot of small-business owners are banging their heads against the wall because their marketing efforts are not working", he noted, adding that these companies wished they could change the way they generated new clients through marketing.

"At the end of the day, while turning a profit is essential for a business, without setting solid foundations from the outset through targeted marketing, you're far less likely to get repeat customers, even if your product is amazing", Hall said.

Smartology unveils new Singapore hire

The contextual ad vendor has added a new hire, Michelle Ong, who joins their Asia-Pacific ad ops team based out of Singapore.

Reporting to Smartology's head of Asia-Pacific ops Eileen Soh, Ong was previously with the New York Times, where she also held a role in ad ops and sales support. Her appointment was necessary to meet customer demand in the region, according to the company.

Soh added: "As more clients come on board, we need additional expertise to provide the level of support they require, during their office hours. With her sales and ad ops experience and passion for digital advertising, Michelle is the perfect fit for the team."

Targetbase AU rebrands to The Walk Agency

The Melbourne-based agency have morphed into The Walk Agency, following a rebranding exercise they say addresses changes in the global marketing environment.

Their digital director, Nick Cantor, said: "Change is both rapid and gradual and, sometimes, there is so much focus on reacting to big changes and trends that we don't notice the world turn beneath our feet."

He added that the changes in how companies and products go-to-market today meant the support marketers needed from agencies had also evolved. "So we need to be smart from both strategic and technological perspectives to enable our clients to be effective in their roles and get results for their businesses", Cantor said.

The company said the newly-minted The Walk Agency would adopt a "new-age, flexible business model" aimed at facilitating "agile and effective delivery" for its global clientele.