+44 (0)20 7930 4158POPULAR TOOLS
WPP chief says China remains core target
Global ad company WPP will maintain its focus on China, despite the country only bringing in a small share of WPP's overall sales. "China represents the bull's eye," claims Sir Martin Sorrell, speaking to The Daily Telegraph. "You have 400m internet users, you have 800m mobile phone users. In terms of mobile networks, China Mobile has 550m customers, and it is growing at 8m to 10m a month. It is extraordinary."
From as early as 1993, WPP decided "new markets" such as China should represent one of "three pillars" of core strategy. Sorrell believes WPP is "about three or four times bigger than anyone else", claiming to have 15% of China's ad market, generating an annual revenue of just over USD900m. Sorrell accepts this is roughly the same amount as France and Germany generate, and considerably less than is made in the UK (USD2bn) and the US (USD4bn).
Sorrell wants China to bring in USD1bn of revenue, yet his prediction two years ago that "if the [Chinese] economy grows at 10%, we will grow at 20%" seems overly optimistic. In Q1 of this year, WPP's China business grew by 7%, while the Chinese economy grew by 11.9%.
