Phone users drive online marketing

China's advertising and marketing companies are moving rapidly toward the online and mobile sector, and some are eyeing bigger markets abroad, thanks to a growing number of smartphone users.

As Frost& Sullivan, an international consulting company, recently reported, China's mobile marketing management business has seen a leap from 58.6 billion yuan ($9.25 billion) in 2012 to 216.9 billion yuan in 2016 with an annual growth rate of 38.7 percent.

The consultancy also predicted that by 2020 online marketing management will surpass the offline market in China, accounting for 52.3 percent of the market share, and is expected to grow to 767.1 billion yuan by 2021.