And if you’re interested in discussing digital marketing trends and best practice in Asia-Pacific, then apply for a place at our forthcoming roundtable events.

They will focus on marketing automation, email, and behavioural marketing. The dates are:

And now, on with the stats…

Programmatic boom in SEA

Programmatic ad inventory has seen a huge surge in Southeast Asia in Q1, according to TubeMogul.

The biggest surge in desktop pre-roll advertising inventory occurred in the Philippines, which saw a jump in the average number of weekly auctions from 144m in Q4 2014 to 446m in Q1 2015.

In comparison, Indonesia went from 169m to 481m and Singapore increased from 129m to 364m.

These markets are still relatively small on a global scale, but overall Southeast Asia sees 1.8bn auctions a week.

Indian online population to increase to 550m by 2018

The Boston Consulting Group has published a new report which predicts that there will be 550m connected consumers in India by 2018.

Looking more closely at the demographic breakdown of the online population, the proportion of women is predicted to increase from 25% in 2013 up to around a third by 2018.

There will also be a significant increase in internet access among the rural population. By 2018 it’s predicted that half of the online population will live in smaller towns and villages, compared to 29% in 2013.

Contactless payments on the rise

The number of people using contactless payments in Asia-Pacific increased by 49% in 2014 compared to 2013, according to MasterCard.

In Australia almost two-thirds of Mastercard in-store transactions are contactless, an increase of 45% year-on-year.

The credit card company did not publish figures for other nations, but said that contactless payments had doubled in Singapore and quadrupled in Hong Kong.

The increase in contactless payments in developing markets is predominately being driven by mobile Point Of Sale (mPOS) technology, which enables merchants to accept payments using a smartphone or tablet.

Oz mobile ad market reaching maturity

The IAB’s Australian Mobile Landscape Study has found that the Australian mobile ad market has reached maturity in the past 12 months.

Results from the survey of 350 marketers show that 93% of buyers were happy with the results they had achieved with their mobile advertising activities, and a further 41% of marketers were using mobile advertising as a significant part of their marketing campaigns.

While nearly all respondents said they are using mobile banners and social ads, 93% of buyers said they also expect to be using mobile video ads in the next 12 months.

Apple topples Xiaomi

Apple has usurped Xiaomi to become the top smartphone manufacturer in China, where it now has 27.6% of the market.

New data from Kantar Worldpanel shows that the iPhone 6 was the best-selling smartphone in the three months ending February 2016, capturing 10.2% marketshare.

The iPhone 6 Plus came in third behind Xiaomi’s Redmi Note in second.

Australian newspapers stop the rot

Newspapers are one of the businesses that have suffered the most in the digital age, but new data from Enhanced Media Metrics Australia shows that the decline in readership might finally be slowing down.

Overall print readership dropped by 2% to 14.2m in the 12 months up to February 2015, but the number of mobile readers increased by 14% to 3m per month.

As a result, the total combined monthly readership rose by 2% to 16m.

The Sydney Morning Herald claimed to be Australia’s most-read newspaper, with total readership across all platforms reaching 5.2m in February 2015, an increase of 9% year-on-year.

China’s online sales growth continues

China’s National Bureau of Statistics has reported that online retail sales of goods and services increased by 41.3% in Q1.

Though this is obviously an extraordinary level of growth, it is actually a slight drop on the 2014 annual figure of 49.7%.

Increase in Indian smartphone adoption

Smartphone adoption in India will achieve a compound annual growth rate of 36% over the next five years, according to a report from Zinnov India.

The number of smartphone shipments is expected to grow from 81m in 2014 to 651m by 2019.

The rise in adoption is largely being driven by increased competition among manufacturers which has caused a drop in prices.

On-demand is king in Oz

As many as 85% of Australians will be using over-the-top viewing services (i.e. on-demand) within the next two years, according to research from Authentic Entertainment.

The findings come from a study that included in-depth interviews and an online survey of more than 1,700 people.

It found that 65% of Australians were already watching short clips, catch-up TV or long form video online.

Among the 16-24 year old demographic some 86% of respondents already watch TV online.