As every year, we expect the ADMA Digital Marketing Yearbook 2013 be filled with a wealth of information, but since it is not out, yet, let’s take a look back and summarize the highlights of the 2012 edition for your convenience as the facts it includes are still extremely interesting.

There are now more than one billion people online across Asia Pacific (1.016 billion to be precise - nearly 46% of the world's total), and 623 million people access the web via mobile. The billion people online in Asia Pacific are spread across more than 14 countries, with a wide range of languages, cultures and online habits. More than half of them (513 million) are in China, which has its own media properties and consumer dynamics. In fact, seven of the top eleven sites in the region are in China. Across the rest of Asia Pacific there is remarkable diversity; the way people use the web and interact with content and with one another differs significantly from Australia, to Korea, to Indonesia, to India.

The fragmentation of online activities and communities is matched with an explosion of information. By 2015, Asia Pacific's internet users will be generating 530,000 petabytes of information a year, up from 67,000 in 2010. That's the equivalent of every person on Earth exchanging about 50 newspapers' worth of information every day.

The implications and opportunities for marketers are far-reaching: Social media continues to gain in importance, social commerce is on the rise, search remains vital, owned and earned media all continue to play important roles in achieving marketing goals. And although in this fragmented environment marketers must work harder to understand and find their target customers, analytics, behavioral targeting and big data are providing more and more powerful tools for marketers to reach and engage with internet users in personalized ways.

Increasingly, internet usage patterns across Asia Pacific are becoming localized.

In the following there's a look at some of the trends:

• Nearly half of Australians online access TV, movie and related entertainment content, in part thanks to 90% broadband penetration.
• Group buying took China by storm in 2011, with more than 65 million internet users participating - an increase of almost 250% year-on-year.
• 80% of Thailand's internet users say they now shop online.
• The desktop PC remains Vietnam's most widely used device to access the internet (80% of users).
• Only 15% of Indian women have access to the internet.
• Mobile internet access penetration rates in Indonesia reached 57%, vs. less than 10% who access the web via PC.
• The top three reasons people in Hong Kong go online are for online banking, on-demand video, and live video.
• 91% of Taiwan's internet users aged 20-29 are looking at job placements.
• Travel is big in Japan, with online sales estimated at US$31 billion in 2012.
• Malaysians aged 30-39 spend twice as much time online as they do watching TV.
• Two thirds of internet users in The Philippines visited internet cafes in 2011.
• 80% of Singapore's internet users go online every day.
• More than 91% of South Korea's e-commerce revenue is B2B.

So, how are marketers reacting to the changes in online behavior and the opportunities large scale communities offer?

Here's a snapshot of trends and data, and there is lots more detail in the Yearbook:

• Online advertising spend in Asia Pacific reached US$24.8 billion in 2011, making the region second only to the US, with US$34.5 billion.
• Every marketing dollar spent online returns US$1.78, exceeding the returns of all other marketing media including TV, print, out of home and trade (according to Nielsen).
• By 2015, Asia Pacific is expected to account for a third of all global mobile ad spend, reaching US$6.92 billion.
• India, China, Australia and Japan are expected to generate US$258 billion in commerce sales in 2012 between them, and mobile commerce is on the rise with 34% of mobile internet users in China and Korea transacting via handheld devices.
• Mobile app downloads reached 5 billion in 2011, generating US$871 million.

Findings and trends for APAC, regarding user behavior, online advertising and ecommerce:

User behavior:

• The number of Asia Pacific's online gamers is set to break the one billion mark by 2016. As a result, revenues generated from online gaming are expected to reachUS$30.3 billion in 2016.
• Asia Pacific is the largest region in terms of internet traffic, and by 2015 it is projected that 42% of the world's internet traffic will originate from it.
• The amount of time spent online per month by both genders in the Asia Pacific region are pretty much even these days, with females spending 14.7 hours online and males 14.3 hours online.
• By 2015, Asia's internet users are expected to be generating 530,000 petabytes (by the way, one petabyte is equivalent to one million gigabytes) between them. For your information: In 2010 they only consumed 67,000 petabytes.
• Asia Pacific's female internet users devote more than one third (38%) of their digital time to engaging in online discussions.

Online advertising:

• The Asia Pacific region generated US$24.8 billion in online ad spend in 2011, accounting for 29% of global online ad spend last year. North America led all regions with US$34.5 billion in revenues. For 2012, it is predicted that the online ad spend in the Asia Pacific region will hit US$31.4 billion.
• The Asia Pacific region's share of the global online ad spend is expected to be 26.2% by 2015 - a modest growth from 2010, when it had a 23.9% share of the pie.
• For every marketing dollar spent on online initiatives, the return in Asia Pacific was $1.78, exceeding the returns of all other formats including TV, print, out of home, and trade.
• People trust the opinions of the ones they know over all other methods of persuasion. In a survey on trust and advertising, nearly all Asia Pacific recipients (94%) said they had the most confidence (they "trust completely" or "trust somewhat") in recommendations from people they knew. After that, they showed the most trust (76% said this) in other's opinions posted online. When it came to trusting brand messages, however, nearly two thirds (63%) said they had the most confidence in branded websites. Just over two fifths (43%) showed the same level of confidence in ads served in search engine results, online video ads (42%), while just under two fifths of them (39%) placed the most trust in online banner ads.

eCommerce:

• Before making an online purchase, 60% of Asia Pacific consumers will turn to online product reviews first. The Vietnamese turn to online product reviews the most (81%), followed by the Chinese (77%), and then Thais (69%).
• India and China will be leading Asia Pacific's e-commerce growth over the next few years, with them both expecting to return the highest CAGRs of 57% and 25% respectively between 2012 and 2016. By comparison, Japan, South Korea and Australia are expected to grow at CAGRs of between 11% to 12% over the same period.
• Four of the Asia Pacific region's e-commerce powerhouses - India, Australia, Japan and China - are expected to generate more than US$258 billion in e-commerce sales between them in 2012. By 2016, China will have exceeded that number alone, generating US$356.1 billion in e-commerce sales. Together, all four are expected to draw in US$497.9 billion by then.
• The Asia Pacific online travel market was expected to generate US$51.6 billion in revenues in 2011, growing 30% to 40% in the coming year. Asia Pacific is expected to account for 20% of the global online travel market in 2012.
• Mobile commerce is gaining traction in the Asia Pacific region. Interest in mobile shopping is becoming greater with 34% of mobile internet users in China and South Korea transacting via their handheld device. For those who doubt the potential of mobile commerce, forecasts predict that the transaction value for payments being settled over a mobile device will reach US$267 billion in 2016.

"With one billion internet users now in Asia Pacific, marketers need to get local and personal", is the key advice of the book and that’s just a small portion of the detailed information you will find on all of APAC as well as individual countries in this yearbook. So if you need further details, please visit: http://www.asiadigitalmarketingyearbook.com/

By MediaBUZZ