China to Monitor 95% of Internet Advertising in 2017: SAIC Official

Internet advertising has witnessed rapid growth in China with the rise of the Internet industry. However, the rate of false and misleading internet advertising is three times higher than in traditional media advertising. The industry environment badly needs regulation and cleaning-up.

"The National Internet Advertising Monitoring Centre will be completed before the end of this year and will officially begin monitoring Internet advertising next year." This was disclosed by Zhang Guohua, director general of the Department of Advertising Supervision under the State Administration for Industry of Commerce (SAIC), when he attended the opening ceremony and delivered the keynote speech at the 2016 (12th) China Advertising Forum in Changchun on 22 April.

SAIC commissioned the task of setting up the National Internet Advertising Monitoring Centre to its Zhejiang branch. The centre can monitor 95% of online advertising after it goes into operation.

Advertising monitoring will not hamper creativity or the development of the industry as a whole because of its stringent rules, said Zhang Guohua, adding that the purpose of monitoring is to ensure that Internet advertising develops in a healthy and green direction.

China promulgated its new Advertising Law, which was considered by industry players as the “toughest ever” adopted in China, in April last year. Market order is said to have seen world-shaking changes this past year.

According to statistics, in the first quarter of 2015, 6-8% of China's traditional media advertising was found to have violated the relevant laws and regulations, and 36.5% of the advertising time on TV and radio was illegal. Statistics this year show both figures dropping to about 1%. According to Zhang Guohua, false advertising has decreased by 95% since the implementation of the Advertising Law.