Data Drop: 5 Charts on Retail Media Ad Spending in China

In many parts of the world, such as the US and Latin America, the burgeoning retail media ad market is seen as one of the fastest-growing opportunities in advertising. As a testament to its market potential, both Walmart and Amazon are investing heavily in building out their own ecosystems by leveraging their vast customer data and extensive digital and physical retail networks.

Retail media ad spending is growing at a more moderate pace in China than in other countries

This is because ecommerce platforms such as JD.com and Alibaba’s Taobao adopted this revenue channel early on, and it has already matured. To illustrate this point, in 2019, China dominated with 66.4% share of retail media ad spending worldwide compared with 24.6% in the US. (However, the US market is projected to eclipse China’s, with shares of 40.6% and 37.1% in 2025, respectively.)