The Analysis Of China’s Online Advertising Categories During The "Portal Monopoly" Period

New media must compete with the existing media for audiences’ time、attention andsocial support in order to survive and obtain financial revenue. To understand the newmedia that grew out of a complex system we must understand economic reality andeconomic power. Advertising revenue is considered as the main economic factor of mediacompetition, analyzing audience value and advertising categories that gather on the mediacan help us understand competition between different media forms and the evolution ofmedia competition and convergence.The study focuses on the online advertising categories distribution during the1999-2004China’s internet portal monopoly period, and compares the similarities anddifferences of advertiser evolution between Chinese internet, Chinese traditional mediaand American internet. Using the research method of historical-comparative research, thestudy mixed collects data from the existing materials, literature, newspapers and otherresources. Through diachronic longitudinal and cross-media, cross-border comparison, wefound online advertising was considered as a supplementary mean of advertisers’ mediastrategy during the portal monopoly period, and the online advertising categories ofChina were quite different from those of traditional media, and the former showed relianceon the computer peripheral with significant technology-oriented imprint. The U.S onlineadvertising market was quite mature at that time, and the online advertising categorieswere mainly based on the consumer-related industry which showed great difference toChinese market.China’s internet did not have the ability to compete for advertisers with traditionalmedia during the years1999-2004, the main reason was attributed to the netizens thatgathered on the internet who were young, low-income and low educational attainment.The rapid development of U.S. internet was also attributed to the netizen structure whichwas young, highly educated and having high income. The lack of advertisement audienceand low audience value provides a perspective to explain the China internet advertising’slagging behind.