China spends more money on mobile ads than the rest of the world combined

A new report released today by mobile advertising network AppFlood says Asia accounted for 27 percent of all the Android apps installed around the world last quarter. Advertisers are clearly catching on to the trend, as AppFlood also reports that three-fifths of money spent on ads around the globe comes from China, most of it aimed at the Asian market.

“Our data finds that China and emerging regions are influencing the global app economy with nearly half of all global installs coming from Asia and the Middle East,” said Si Shen, co-founder and CEO of PapayaMobile, AppFlood’s parent company.

See: China’s high-end phone users more likely to crack wi-fi passwords, cheat on mobile games: report

AppFlood says China’s average mobile ad spend grew 123 percent quarter-on-quarter, which far outpaced the slowing growth of the USA at 66 percent.

“Advertisers in China spent more than those in developed regions and invested their ad spend in emerging regions,” Shen says.

The bulk of that money is going toward advertising on productivity apps, which received more ad spend than the next four categories combined.

China is part of a larger trend in Asia – the report found that about 53 percent of mobile traffic and 47 percent of installs came from Asia and the Middle East. 29 percent of all mobile ad budgets target Asia.